simply elixelle

The Love Of A Mother

2012-02-14T19:30:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone. Happy Valentine's Day. These days V-Day isn't just celebrated by couples in love but is made to be a celebration of love in general despite it's history. I came across this photo less than a month ago and thought it was just super duper sweet and showcases the love of a mother towards her child.

9GAG Link

Although not all mothers are skilled seamstresses, this one was. Imagine the effort and attention to detail this mother had to transform her child's drawings into actual dollies. What a gem.

Simple Yet Efficient Organizers

2012-02-09T20:45:00.000+08:00

I love things that help you organize. I love when everything has its place. Sometimes, there are simple solutions that are not only inexpensive, but efficient in decluttering.

pinterest Link

Now why didn't I think of this? It doesn't get any simpler than this. Those black document clips can double up as a cable holder too. If you're concern the clip will dent the furniture, stick a thin foam to the pressure points to protect your table. The original post (link here) has more interesting ideas. tips and simple solutions for household related matters.

pinterest Link

If you have lots of ribbons, you'll know what a pain it is to store because it unravels easily and you end up with a tangled mess. This wonderful idea from Storage | Glee (link here - Check out the blog for more interesting storage ideas) is perfect! Find a plastic tray that can hold your ribbons (make sure the tray/basket has holes on the sides) and arrange your ribbons nicely in it. Slot the ends of each ribbon through an individual hole and voila, you are done. This way you can easily pull out any of the ribbons through the hole (everything stays in place) and cut your desired length.

Need Help With Portion Control?

2012-02-07T20:30:00.000+08:00

A dieter's dream? The best way to diet is not to refrain from eating or punish yourself by not eating food you love that is "bad" for you. All things are fine, in moderation.

pinterest Link

I'm not sure if and where this portion control tray is available but I've got to say that sure is helpful. I wouldn't necessary say this is an essential tool but it does make it easier to estimate how much food should be eaten. Another alternative is to eat with those food trays we used to have when we were kids (or at least we had it in our household) that had a few different compartments for your mains and side dishes.

Awesome Jewelry Organizer

2012-02-05T18:30:00.000+08:00

Jewelry, especially costume/fashion jewelry, helps complete an outfit and most girls have their own collection be it big or small. I would say my stash lies somewhere in the middle and for the moment, I have them in individual slots in my document drawer tower. I am however still thinking of another way to store them and at the same time make it even more visible and accessible to me so that I'd wear them more.

When I saw this organizing idea on pinterest, I thought it was interesting and well, genius!

pinterest Link

Doesn't that look beautiful? So neatly organized and all that is are several cutlery trays (wooden and painted white I assume) attached to the wall one on top of the other with hooks screwed in at the top of each vertical slot to hang necklaces and earrings. The horizontal slot works well to store bangles and bracelets as well as rings.

Corner Drawers FTW

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

When you have L- or U-shaped (or any other angle with right corners) cabinets, those corners can be a little tricky to design. These days though, there are many solutions and options to choose from to deal with these pesky corners. There are pull or swivel out steel frames and of course there's the regular static shelving that requires some limber moves to reach items placed far deep.

Then there are corner drawers:

pinterest Link

The drawers may be oddly shaped but utilizes the corner space a lot more than those steel frames in my opinion. Plus, things that you put in them are far more easily accessible than conventional shelves (and they're pulled out towards you -- no more rummaging in darkness). For me, the problem with steel frames is that you can't put too much weight on them or they'll get lopsided and squeaky, especially the swivel kind. Drawers on the other hand, if fitted properly with the right hardware, can take on heavier loads and you've got to admit drawers are much easier to organize too.

A Spot For The Family

2012-02-01T19:00:00.000+08:00

For me, family bonding time, spending time with the family is high up my priority list. I saw this gorgeous family space set up recently and loved the idea.

Click for more photos

This square family room sofa with plush cushions makes for a beautiful place for chit chatting and catching up be it with family, friends or guests. This would also work nicely as a chillaxing area to just curl up and immerse yourself in a good read. The photo above shows a very Middle Eastern inspired deco with the area having a sort of sunken position.

Toothpick Architecture

2012-01-30T20:29:00.000+08:00

Remember back in school teachers had us bring toothpicks to school and asked us to make houses and buildings with them. Equipped with a small cardboard as base, UHU glue and clumsy fingers, I attempted a tiny village hut which never saw the light of day. Admittedly, I had patience issues. Haha.

Here are a couple of huge toothpick sculptures I came across at 9GAG.com:

Click for more photos

The elaborate piece above is full of intricate designs made by one man with a 100,000 toothpicks over a span of 35 years. The dedication of that man is beyond words. This sculpture took longer to make than I have lived!

Click for more photos

Ode to Potter fans. An obscene amount of toothpicks and glue later, voila, the masterpiece as seen above is born. How the artist behind this grand piece figured out the layout of Hogwarts to fully replicate it with toothpicks no less is nothing short of amazing.

Subtle Tattoos

2012-01-28T20:00:00.000+08:00

Personally, I'm not a big fan of tattoos especially on myself (although technically, I have tattoo restrictions) but I do understand that to most people, each piece of art on their bodies represents a part of their life. Having something permanently penned to your own skin is a huge commitment and you don't want to be 60 and have to live with a garish ink art of a mistake you wish would just go away or had never happened. Of course there's laser removal but that's said to be more painful than the initial tattoo.

Anyways, enough about personal preferences and thoughts, I stumbled upon this photo and felt this particular body art to be... beautiful.

pinterest Link

It looks like skin but embossed. From what I gather from the discussion they had going on on the page, they might have used white ink for this tatt. I wonder how this would work on darker skin tones? Or would they use a tinted version so it'll blend with the skin better?

From The Olympics To Water Park

2012-01-26T19:00:00.000+08:00

From being the 2008 Olympics venue to a full blown water park? The Beijing Water Cube has been transformed into a family destination. (CNNGo link)

pinterest Link

This looks magical! The building itself is already perfectly themed from the get go and having all these Avatar-inspired, fantasy underwater world themed water park is perfect. Apparently entrance is RMB200 (adults) and RMB160 (children) and operating hours are 10am to 9.30pm daily. Has anyone been there yet?

Flower Art

2012-01-24T19:00:00.000+08:00

With a drop of creativity, anything is possible. I love how beautiful these flower arts are!!

pinterest Link

This is so beautiful. I love the idea behind the photos. Flower skirts. Doesn't art like this just make you wonder how someone got this idea and the amount of time it took to execute it?

pinterest Link

I've seen these before and they are gorgeous! However, this particular piece of decoration I feel is only suitable for temporary events. I can imagine that water looking gross over time what with dust, insects and larvae swimming about. *Way to ruin a beautiful picture, self. Haha* Glass vases similar to the above are sold in Kaison and IKEA (they should also be available elsewhere but those are the 2 places I'm confident of. Parkson and Metrojaya might have them too). Personally, I'll omit the water and put a lid up top to prevent the flowers from getting dirty and deter insects falling in.

That Space Under The Stairs

2012-01-22T19:00:00.000+08:00

Most homes have it. That space under the stairs. A rather awkward shape and space. Aren't these designs (specifically for those part of the house) just genius?

pinterest Link

Pull out panels are common designs in kitchens these days. Why not have them done like this then and utilize the are under the stairs for more storage? I love how everything can be tucked away neatly out of sight yet incredibly accesible. I wonder if we could get a contractor to get this done for my brother's upcoming work space. *taking notes*

pinterest Link

If there's an adjacent wall, this office nook is also a nice idea. This looks like it can be a DIY project too. With a little measuring here and there, there just might be a table and some drawers that can be made to fit as pictured above and put up some shelves (that are readily available from IKEA, Parkson or even Giant) to finish it off.

Compact Solutions for Small Spaces

2012-01-20T19:18:00.002+08:00

The online community has been abuzz on the tumblr-esque site, pinterest, and I can understand why. If you're looking inspiration on just about anything, I strongly suggest you give the site a look.

Here are a couple things that I thought was interesting to begin with (yes, this might be my blogging inspiration for the moment):

This idea probably isn't anything new but it's still a pretty neat idea. The original post is from the Martha Stewart website (link here) which is where I borrowed the images for the above image for the purpose of this post. I love how the bookcase is neatly tucked away into a corner and opens up revealing a functional office (or as pictured above -- a craft area and storage). Those are 2 individual same size bookcases joined together with hinges kind of like vintage wooden gift boxes.

I'm not too sure if this piece of furniture is an actual product but wouldn't it be cool? (link here) Definitely not your conventional sofa bed though. This would be nice to have in a guest room and spiced up with some bright coloured cushions too.

In Adversity Do We Find Ourselves and See Others For Who They Are

2011-10-03T09:59:00.003+08:00

Only a year and a half since my mum's passing, my family and I have faced yet another loss. Our bapa (dad/stepdad) has passed and we are still shocked with his demise.

My mum always said that a father isn't necessarily the person who helped conceive you. He is the one who loves you unconditionally as his own without question. He is the one who would go that extra mile for you without hesitation nor complaint. He is the one who cares for you and guides you as best he can.

March 4, 2011
With his surprise birthday cake

We had just celebrated our grandmother's birthday earlier that day at an aunt's house, went back to send back the maid and off again to 1Borneo for the HomeDec expo. We had been planning on renovating the home bathrooms and were all set to buy the tiles and other fixtures. In fact, the works were supposed to begin 2 days later. When we got home that night, he collapsed within minutes of entering the house. He passed less than 2 hours later. Almost all of us did not get a wink of sleep that night until after his burial the following morning.

It felt so surreal. Like it was some sort of twisted nightmare. He'd never told us kids about his health. Probably because he didn't want us to worry and partly because he didn't think it was as serious as it was. He would from time to time say his back is painful but brushed it aside as muscle strain.

Our initial thought was that it was a heart attack but my brother pointed out that in the movies, when someone gets a heart attack, they would fall to side, hand on their chest somewhat gasping and not fall unconscious immediately. After talking to a couple of doctors we were close with, we came to the conclusion that he may have had a stroke instead.

He was a man of few words, many smiles and a big, big heart. Despite the busy-ness of his work, we always had time chilling and talking in front of the TV watching our favourite shows like NCIS, CSI and Criminal Minds at night. He'd always make a point to have a few family trips to KL together during the school holidays and sometimes even send us on trips out of the country although he couldn't join us. Every Saturday was family day. We'd go out for lunch/high tea, shopping and/or movies.

Those who knew him would say he was always the fun guy to hang with. He'd never complain and never try to pick a fight or argue with you. To me, he was a superdad. Every problem had a solution and he worked it out. We learnt a lot from him and felt bad whenever we messed up even though he wasn't furious with us. I don't know how he managed his time between family, work, friends and leisure but he did.

I miss our TV nights, Saturday family time, talks and more. No words can describe how much he meant to me, my siblings and the rest of the family. I am thankful however, for all the support from family and friends that I've received and would like to express my utmost appreciation to everyone. I'm sure my family feels the same way too. Thank you.

Thank you Allah for not having him in pain for long. Al-Fatihah.

I Blingified My iPhone Case

2011-09-12T01:46:00.000+08:00

One of the fun things to do with phones in general I think is to dress them up with different casings. There are so many choices in the market these days -- from plain functional protective types to fashion accessories and are made from hard plastic, silicone and sometimes encrusted with rhinestones and crystals.

Elle & Blair Summer Glow Case for iPhone 4 (US$49.99)
Photo Source: Cellairis

Anyways, I saw a really pretty phone case on display recently while window shopping which had a gorgeous pink gradient of crystals on the back (they even had the matching iPad case version too!) quite similar to the one pictured above. Apparently those were Swarovski crystals and costs a whooping RM300+!! If you're wondering, the iPad version was RM700+. Now that to me was way too expensive for a phone casing (at this time anyways).

So I couldn't find a cheaper version of said casing and could not bring myself to directly stick anything (except screen protector) on my phone. This weekend I was hanging out with my baby brother at Centre Point and decided to blingify my phone myself. All I needed was a plain case and those phone deco stickers and here's what came out of it:

OK, so it wasn't the gradient look I was originally after (mainly because the gradient stickers weren't what I had in mind) but I like how subtly blingy it is. Haha. I bought a case that had white plastic around it and a thin metal plate on the back (kinda brushed aluminium-esque feel) (RM19.90, marked down from RM39.90 at Speedy) and then a silver crystal-white pearl bead zebra patterned sticker (RM6.90, Palm Square kiosk) which I stuck on the back of it. I'd only bought 1 sheet of the sticker which wasn't enough. I had a little shy of 2cm left on the top part of the back bare so I picked up another sheet (RM5.90 at a little shop near Red City on the 2nd floor) and filled in the space. The second part was a little bit more tricky than the first though. I had to measure the piece, cut off the bigger crystals/pearls to fit the top and a hole for the camera and flash. Then selecting smaller parts, I pushed around and filled in some spots to make the connected edge more seamless (I added a little more after taking the above photos and now looks like it's one whole piece).

I love that it's glam but not too overly so. Every once in awhile it's nice to have something that is uniquely you and (hopefully) no one else has an exact same one. Haha. OK, I'm done here. Til the next post!

Gold Coast: Attractions

2011-09-01T23:30:00.000+08:00

One of the best part about travelling to Gold Coast were the attractions. We didn't manage to go to every single one of them but we did make our way to a few.

AquaDuck

Website: http://www.aquaduck.com.au/

Photo source: buildingconservationtour.blogspot.com

The first day we were there, we went on the AquaDuck tour to get acquainted with the area. Since this was pretty much a last minute decision, we bought out tickets at Centro and the hop on location was a short walk away. If you've been on a Duck Tour in Singapore, I imagine it's pretty much the same concept. The vehicle, like a duck, takes you around Surfers Paradise on land and in the water on the Nerang River.

Check out the multimillion dollar house (one of many)
with the heli at the Nerang River

Sea World

Website: http://www.seaworld.com.au/

For Seaworld, we purchased the VIP pass online from their website which allows unlimited entries to 3 of their theme parks (Sea World, Movie World and Wet N Wild). The offers for the VIP tend to vary throughout the year so check out their website to see what kind of promotions they have at the time you plan on going. Bring the printed email received for the tickets purchased at the entrance and make your way to their guest services to get your photo taken for your VIP pass.

To get there, we took the bus to Seaworld from the stop opposite our hotel. The return bus' path was right next to our hotel too which was great!

We went to see the shows and performances and had a lot of fun going round the park being all tourist-y and snapping photos of the animals there.

Visit their website for more information on park attractions and things to do.

Movie World
Website: http://movieworld.myfun.com.au/

Movie World for me was the best of all the theme parks we'd gone to. We took the TX2 bus from the stop at Appel Park which was across the road and through Circle on Cavill. Buses with TX prefixes are the Theme Park Express buses that cater to visitors of Wet N Wild, Movie World, Australian Outback Spectacular and Dreamworld. However, the last buses to the theme parks are scheduled before noon so if you miss them, you will need to take a different bus there.

We didn't go on most of the rides though because we were too busy snapping photos, going to the shows and performances, playing games and shopping for souvenirs. Haha. If you're planning on checking out the shows and performances, be sure to plan out your time and work around it.

The Stunt Driver show was definitely the best one that we've gone to and made a point to not miss it. Amazing how those drivers maneuvered at high speed through tight spaces. Be forewarned, it might get a bit hot. Hehe. We practically rushed from the restaurant to the show and got there in the nick of time! Rick's Cafe Americain (the restaurant across) was delish!! It's an all you can eat buffet and you can come back to eat as many times during your visit for the day until 3pm (when they close). And yes, it's certified Halal and has a nice Moroccan style decor too.

More information on park attractions is available on their website.

Dreamworld
Website: http://www.dreamworld.com.au/

Dreamworld (and WhiteWater World) tickets can be purchased online as well and that's exactly what we did. I was honestly disappointed with the place in general though and maybe going during their "slow season" as they describe it had something to do with how drab I felt the place was. Some of the rides were undergoing scheduled maintenance and for the most part the park didn't seem as well kept.

I did enjoy the AVPX laser tag game though despite barely hitting 200 points. It was my first time playing laser tag and it was interesting. We went on the V8 Driving Experience too and I don't know how my 2 brothers managed to play 3 rounds of it cos seriously, I was getting motion sickness just sitting in the car. Haha. Terrible suspension but the brothers had a lot of fun racing. The park was a lot more mellow than the other 2 we had visited. It had a sort of mini zoo (Tiger Island, The Lair, Australian Wildlife Experience) where we saw 1 tiger, a whole bunch of kangaroos, a wombat, a few koalas, a few crocs and some species of birds.

Of course there were rides that were open which I left my brothers to explore. There was a ride called the Giant Drop which reminded me of the Solero Shot ride at Genting only a less scary version. And then there's the Tower of Terror 2 30 second ride which looked similar to the Superman ride at 6 Flags in LA only not as high but the concept was the same.

I'm not sure if it was only for the sleepy season but eateries were all closed by 2pm. I was hungry and unhappy let me tell you that. And we ended up postponing lunch to dinner time.

Ripley's Believe It Or Not!
Website: http://www.ripleys.com/surfersparadise/

Ripley's was just in the building next to Centro so went to check it out one night. I remembered when we were there those many years back I'd wanted to go but was a tad timid so we skipped on it. That being said, it was the usual oddities and if you've been to the ones in say Genting or London, I say skip this one. It's not as big and they have some of the same things anyways.

SkyPoint
Website: http://www.skypoint.com.au/

We weren't exactly aware of SkyPoint but when we bought our tickets online for Dreamworld, there was an offer to purchase tickets for SkyPoint as well at a discounted price. After checking out the website, I thought it would be nice to visit. It's sort of like the Sands Sky Park in Singapore but indoors and in only 1 building (the Singapore Sky Park spans over 3 buildings). It gives you a nice 360 degrees view of Gold Coast with lookouts and some reading material for more background information. There's also a restaurant where you can dine while overlooking the Coast. Being somewhat acrophobic, my knees were trembling and legs felt weak. Haha. My 2 brothers were fine though. I could only calm down when I was literally hugging one of the many trusses there. Hahaha. We went at night though but I felt the day time would've offered an amazing view.

Surfers Paradise Night Market

Here's something we found out from the AquaDuck tour, there's a night market by the beach on Wednesdays and Fridays (if I'm not mistaken). We almost forgot though and would've missed it too had we not seen the tents as we left the restaurant after dinner. If you're looking for handmade items and unique knick knacks, do drop by and walk around.

Gold Coast: Planes, Hotels & Buses

2011-08-25T17:38:00.003+08:00

So June for me was an amazing month of travelling. The month kick started with a trip to Gold Coast, Australia with my siblings during the school break. Everyone was excited especially the two younger boys as it was their first time going. Myself and my oldest younger brother had gone back when we were little (I think it was 1993 or 1994) which was an insanely long time ago.

Photo source: vroomvroomvroom.com.au

Preparations and Basic Stuff

Travelling to Australia isn't much of a hassle as far as documents were concerned. All you need is a valid passport (at least 6 months to expiry from return date) and visa. If you're visiting Australia for pleasure/leisure and don't intend to stay any longer than 3 months, Malaysia is one of the countries listed for an ETA visa which can be applied for online for AU$20 per person. However, it's probably much easier to visit your friendly neighbourhood travel agent (like we did) to apply and it was cheaper too (RM20). It doesn't take long to apply and you get almost immediate approval. The information is automatically saved in the system. Although it isn't necessary, I had all our ETA slips stapled in our passports just in case.

Since Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, June was somewhere end of Autumn/early Winter at the time. The temperature was in the 14 to 20 degrees Celsius in the day time and from 7 or 9 degrees Celsius at night if I'm not mistaken. Weather was great and we did get a couple of sunny days while the rest of the days we were there was nice and cool.

All our travel arrangements -- flights, airport transfer, hotel and park tickets -- were purchased online before the trip.

The Flight and At The Airport

We travelled via AirAsia and AirAsiaX which ultimately landed at the Coolangatta Airport (OOL). It took approximately 8 hours from KL and the Smokey BBQ Chicken on board was pretty decent although we would've preferred a little more to eat. Fortunately though the flight was at night so we slept through most of the flight and woke up bright and early to land. For our return flight, we had pre-purchased the entertainment unit and that was nice. I think it was RM30/unit and had a selection of movies, TV shows and music. And we had Australian chicken pie on the return flight too. Quite nice too. As with all international flights, you will have to fill in an immigration and customs form too and it's best to do so while in the plane, before landing.

Photo source: airport-technology.com

We were all super excited to arrive and that morning was actually quite cold to the point you could see your breath as you speak and breathe. Haha. That was fun. When we arrived, our path immediately brought us to the duty free store (probably the only one in the arrival area) which was strategically located right before the immigration counters. It's unavoidable though as you have to go through the store to get to the counters. The airport wasn't that big and right behind immigration were the baggage carousels and customs. The officers in charge were very nice and friendly despite being thorough with their job. The lengthiest part of the whole process was actually waiting in line. Haha.

Flying back, I'd suggest don't wait til the last minute to proceed to the departure halls. Customs will be scanning your bags for any excessive LAGs and they might also do a random bomb check before you enter. After all that, we thought we were all set to go since we thought we were already at the gates (must've been for domestic flights) but apparently there was another counter to go through inside the departure area right before our actual gate too. I think this was the immigration counters? Or was it another customs scan? Gonna have to check with my brothers to see if they remember.

Transfers and Transport

Photo source: queenslandholidays.com.au

I'd made bookings for our airport transfers prior to our departure on the Gold Coast Tourist Shuttle website. I had contemplated on a few different companies before finally deciding on GC Tourist Shuttle. Although I've read a few bad reviews for the service, we actually had a pleasant experience. We only booked for airport transfers for our trip but you can check out their website for other transport packages they offer including theme park transfers and an all in Gold Coast transport package. I can't remember now how long it took but I believe it was about 30-45 minutes from the airport to our hotel.

At the airport, we had to go to their counter with our booking confirmation email before boarding the bus/coach. When we got to the drop off point, the bus driver was kind enough to brief us on pick up for our return airport transfer and gave us a little direction to where we were and where our hotel was (a 5 minute walk from the drop off point). For the return trip, we just had to call in to confirm our pick up time 24 hours prior.

One of the main reasons why I didn't opt for the Freedom Pass offered by GC Tourist Shuttle was I felt it didn't give us the kind of flexibility that we would've liked. All the theme parks we were going to were easily accessible by bus so we bought GoCards instead which you can buy at most 7Eleven stores and we had 2 near our hotel. Hehe. GoCards are much cheaper -- 30% -- to use than paying for a regular paper ticket. Make sure you tap in and out properly and don't double tap your card to avoid any penalty charges deducted from your travel credit. The cards are reloadable also at 7Eleven stores and you have the time to, you can get a AU$5 refund by returning the card. I'm not too sure how that works because we kept all our cards as souvenirs. Hehe. But more info on refunds can be found here.

Before you leave for Gold Coast and if you plan on taking public transportation while there, I strongly suggest checking out the Translink Journey Planner and take note of the buses available for the routes you will be going on. Plus, it helps give you a rough time estimate for your journey and suggest alternatives based on your travel times too.

Our Hotel

For accommodation, I made reservations through Agoda, a site recommended by my uncle for making hotel bookings. So we stayed at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Surfers Paradise which was located right smack in the middle of the town and was literally connected to Centro (shopping mall) and Hard Rock. There were a lot of halal food choices within walking distance from our hotel (Malaysian, Indian, seafood, Middle Eastern and more), Woolworths was right downstairs (inside Centro), Ripley's Believe It Or Not was also nearby and the beach was just a few minutes walk. Since there was four of us, I booked the family room which was very spacious and could comfortably fit 5 people. Our check in didn't take long and the receptionist was super friendly and helpful. We enjoyed our stay there.

The hotel was very conveniently located. It was a short walk to the bus stops, shopping spots, some attractions, souvenir shops, eateries and more. After midnight, we needed to use our room key card to enter the hotel lobby which is a nice security measure in my opinion.

Our hotel marked by the red dot on the map
- Click image to enlarge -

Of course we bought some food supplies for breakfast and snacking and some plastic wears too (bowls and cutlery) at Woolworths which were inexpensive. There are a number of clubs in the are especially down Orchid Avenue so the area around the hotel (no, the hotel wasn't all noisy or anything like that) was still quite alive even at night time which was great! I'd prefer that to having to stay somewhere too quiet and isolated. Haha. Plus, Timezone (gaming arcade centre) was open til midnight downstairs and we had a lot of fun there too.

YouTube Talent... Blown Away

2011-08-11T13:00:00.038+08:00

Haha. Sorry but this is another YouTube related post. Told you I was obsessed with the site.

Anyways, I'm just completely blown away with the amount of talent on there that makes watching shows like Akademi Fantasia a complete joke. Harsh much?

But seriously, check out this video I stumbled upon quite awhile back that was recorded in aid of the earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan (proceeds were directed to the Japan Red Cross):

This song and video was a collaboration of 55 YouTubers (mostly the same people who sang We Are The World in support of relief efforts for Haiti here). The song was written by J. Rice & Brett McLaughlin and composed by J. Rice. The channel for each singer is linked in the video as well as in the description box on the YouTube page here.

Those interested can also record their cover of the song. The free download of the instrumental score is available here.

This song is beautiful and maybe I'm just super emotional but it's just full of hope. What do you think?

Music... Boyce Avenue

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

The first time I heard of Boyce Avenue was when their cover of Katy Perry's hit Fireworks was played on hitz.fm some time back. The cover featured fellow YouTube talent David Choi on violin and I fell in love with their arrangement and vocals of the song.

OK, so I didn't dig much into it until probably a month or so after while browsing David Choi's YouTube channel and saw the video for it. Interest peaked, I had to check out other songs they've covered (and yes, they have original songs too). My all time favourite is definitely their cover of Taylor Swift's Last Kiss with Megan and Liz:

I've never heard of the song prior but after hearing Taylor's version of it afterwards, I much prefer Boyce Avenue's rendition. As with any singer, I don't love all the songs they sing though. Anyhow, they've recently gone on their UK & Europe tour and are on the US leg of their tour now I believe. They'll also be heading down under for a few shows but no sign of an Asian leg just yet. But hey, you never know right? David Choi made it here in the past couple of months. *smiles*

Life Talk... On YouTube

2011-08-05T13:00:00.015+08:00

Among the things that I love about the internet is YouTube. Hands down it is one of the best sources of information, knowledge and inspiration in my opinion. YouTube gives everyone with a camera and computer with an internet connection the opportunity to share their thoughts, experiences and knowledge with anyone interested to know more.

Although my main reasons to frequently hog my internet bandwidth watching YouTube videos are more beauty and entertainment related than anything else, every so often I'd stumble on some inspiring videos. The kind of videos that reminds me to be thankful and embrace life, to learn not to take myself too seriously and challenge myself.

One of my favourite YouTube personalities is actually a popular beauty guru but has a second channel where she posts some snippets of her life and share more life related videos.

Click here to check out her channel for more videos

Craft & Sewing Furniture

2011-08-02T23:32:00.004+08:00

My current obsession is to window shop online and I just thought these pieces of furniture would be perfect for a craft and sewing corner:

IKEA LIATORP White Desk

This would have to be one of my fave desks from IKEA. If I had the space in my room, best believe I would've gotten this and ship it back here. It just looks so elegant and if I had a home office, this is definitely a piece of furniture that would be part of it. It would make the perfect sewing table too. I could plop my sewing machine and serger on there and put all the supplies in the drawer and shelf storage space on either sides. Funny though. It's no longer listed on the Malaysian IKEA website.

IKEA HEMNES Black-Brown Desk

I'm not completely sure but I think this is new to the store. It's similar to the previous table, comes in more than just a black-brown finish but lacks the elegance in the former table. I think this one probably comes with a cable organizer but I'm not too sure.

EZ View White Craft Desk

Not this I found on Overstock.com and is specifically a craft desk (which of course can easily be a sewing desk if you place maybe tempered glass up top?). It has so many compartments and storage space to put supplies in. Perfect for the OCD urges in some of us.

Original Scrapbox Workbox Black Beadboard
Scrapbooking Desk/Armoire

I have never seen anything much like this before. It's just an awesome piece of furniture that you can close to ~~hide~~ neatly tuck away your craft workspace or sewing station. So many shelves and compartments so everything has its place.

I've been pretty busy with travelling (in June) and then working on my beauty blog that I've neglected to post anything on this blog. That and my lack of ideas lately. Hopefully I'll think of something else non-beauty related to talk about. My travels perhaps? I love travelling but I'll talk more on that in future posts. *smiles*

Oh yes, and before I forget, hope everyone has a wonderful Ramadhan this year.

Photo sources: IKEA (Malaysian and US sites) & Overstock.com

KK Twestival 2011

2011-05-16T13:22:00.000+08:00

This is a super belated post simply because I had only gotten around to transfer the small amount of photos (coming up below) from the event. Oopsie! The KK Twestival 2011 was held on March 24th, 2011 at Origin Cafe & Green Olives Restaurant at Karamunsing Capital, Kota Kinabalu in support of the Sabah Society for the Blind (as voted for prior to the event).

Click above image to learn more about the event

The first Twestival Local first came to KK shores last year but I wasn't able to be a part of it then. This year, since I had time I dragged my brother to accompany me to the event. To be honest, I wasn't exactly sure what the whole gig was about and I suppose now that I've seen it up close, I have somewhat of an understanding of the whole Twestival concept.

The KK Twestival 2011 Banner on location

Food and drinks coupon

Each ticket comes with food and drink but unfortunately by the time we arrived they were all out. Didn't even get to find out what was served either. Haha. So we bought some extra coupons (in the name of charity) to buy food and drinks. The nom nom-ing choices were rather limited but then again, I don't suppose people came for the food now did they?

My bro with a big smile on his face

The general scene of the night

There was a pretty decent crowd that night and a host of fun and games. The auctions got everyone a little excited though. They were auctioning off specially hand made goods, Zumba classes, gym memberships, bachelors and bachelorettes among others.

Red Velvet cupcake from Boutique Cupcakes.
Delicious but I'm loyal to Chocolate Vanilla. Haha.

Braille bookmark I got as a souvenir for my baby bro.
Slight typo but it's OK.

I met a few friends at the event and did some brief catching up. All in all, it was an interesting experience and my bro and I simply chilled in the background soaking up the atmosphere. I wanted to take more photos but the lighting was just too dim for my ole point and shoot to capture decent pics. For a better feel of the whole event, check out the official KK Twestival page for HQ photos, and other info leading up to the event.

Photo thanks to Fara.

Oh hey, I won one of the lucky draw prizes too. Haha. A huge hamper and that was extremely unexpected since I barely win anything at lucky draws. Something to share with the family at home. The sound system could've been better that night though. I could barely hear anything from where we were sitting (and we weren't that far). Good fun though. *smile*

Stages in a Relationship...

2011-04-23T17:40:00.000+08:00

If you've not seen them, Wong Fu Productions is an amazingly talented group of people who've been producing a lot of videos on YouTube and I have to say that their work is crazy good. Here's their latest short and I think this pretty much relates to everyone who's been in a relationship. I love how the message was relayed and the progression of the short in general.

Did it strike a chord with you? Click here for the behind the scenes and director's commentary.

Penny Auction... Real Bargains or A Gamble?

2011-04-05T12:00:00.159+08:00

A month or two back I stumbled on an online bidding site called Penny Auction which allows you to bid on mostly gadgets and electronic items (which tend to be quite pricey) and should you win, to purchase it at least 50% below market price.

In order to bid, you are required to sign up for an account with them at no cost and you get a number of free bids (I think it's 3 bids) to kick start your bidding experience on the site. Once you're out of bids, you will need to buy more bids in order to participate in the on going and upcoming auctions.

HOW IT WORKS

The concept is very simple. Each bid is in an increment of RM0.01. Each item being auctioned will have a preset duration on their timer and every time someone bids, the timer is restarted. To win the auction, you will need to be the last bidder when the timer ends and the system confirms that no other bidder is present. There's a 50% off market price guarantee as well so for every item in the auction that is won at a price higher than 50% retail price, the winner need only pay up to a maximum of 50% and the balance is compensated by Penny Auction.

HOW TO BID & HOW MUCH DO THEY COST?

There are 2 methods of bidding at the moment. The first being via their website (log-in required) and the second via SMS (standard telco rates apply and limited to maximum of 100 SMS per 30 days from a single number). SMS bids however, do tend to have somewhat of a lag/delay.

From the website, there is an option to utilize the Autobidder tool where you enter the highest amount you are willing to bid for and the number of bids you would like to use for the particular item. Again, keep in mind that the bid increments by RM0.01 and setting a maximum of RM10 for instance could easily cost RM700 (bid price).

Unlike sites like eBay & Lelong, bids aren't FOC. You will need to invest in capital costs to purchase bids as per the following table:

WHAT ITEMS HAS PEOPLE WON? AND AT WHAT PRICE?

By clicking on the tab labeled "Ended Auctions", you'll be able to see a gallery of the most recent items that have been successfully won by members. Below are a few of the sample items (and end prices):

You can also bid on "Free Bids", a.k.a. bidding to buy bids at a lower price than that sold through regular process. Certain items also comes bundled with these free bids or xx% bids back (you get xx% of your bids back if you win).

CALCULATIONS & RISKS

An original brand new 13" MacBook Pro for a mere RM0.15 (<1% retail price!)? An iPod Nano, iPhone 4 and an iPad for just RM3.87? Anyone would be tempted to give this a shot, no?

After playing around on the site, I've got to say, as exciting as it seems, it's not as easy to actually win at such low prices. Let's take the iPack bundle for instance. A bid of RM3.87 basically equals 387 bids altogether. Assuming a minimum of 2 bidders (although highly likely there are more than 2), that's 193 bids per person. Thus, a maximum of about RM320 worth of bids to start with. And there is no guarantee that while you are monitoring your auctions, you will get the items on your first try.

BID TIMES

Bidding is not available 24 hours for most items. These auctions are open from 10am - 12pm daily. However, items with the clock face icon is open for bidding round the clock.

PERSONAL TAKE ON PENNY AUCTION

While some are lucky to have won bids at incredibly low prices, I personally feel the site to be like a casino. You purchase your chips or you insert your coins (money in first) with no guarantee you will win anything, then if you win, good for you cos it would probably be a bargain but if you lose the bid, it's good money spent on air. As enticing as it is to get a TV for under RM1, I'd much rather put my money to better use with a result that is less vague and far more achievable.

Disclaimer : I am not affiliated with Penny Auctions, nor am I endorsing it in any way. The above sentiments are of my own as per gained from my experience and observation on the site. The purpose of this post is to provide information to my readers on the aforementioned site and readers in turn are in no way obligated to sign up and purchase any products and/or services from Penny Auctions. I shall not be held responsible or accountable should you choose to participate in the auctions on the site. Proceed with caution and at your own risk.

April's Fool on Gmail

2011-04-02T11:57:00.000+08:00

I've never been a fan of April's Fool and maybe I've done a couple of pranks in the past when I was a kid but that's about it. I do however love to read on absurd "news" people and companies tend to put out on April 1st. Such example being Gmail:

Seriously? Gmail Motion? I thought this was hilarious the moment I saw the feature box on the login page:

Click to enlarge image

They even went the extra step to make it look legit by putting it up on the top right corner of your mailbox page:

Supposedly it works by using your computer's camera to read your gestures and movements and their algorithm translates that into commands. But would you be ape-ing around in front of your computers with these gestures?

Click to enlarge image

On their YouTube page, a commenter who had probably thought Gmail (Google) was serious suggested it would be better if they'd recognize sign language for this new feature. I didn't personally click on the "Try Gmail Motion" button but I assume it will tell you for real that it's a joke.

What corporate April's Fool joke did you see this year?

Another one would be that the iPad 2 will be hitting Malaysian shores on April 18th and is available for preorder now. Since there has been no official statement from Apple sources to validate this, let's just assume this is another April's Fool joke too. That said, the actual release in Malaysia might not be too far off either.

Taking A Break...

2011-03-21T12:16:00.001+08:00

If you're one of my Facebook friends or my Twitter followers, you might already know that I've recently decided to resign from my job, my first job at that too. I've been working for the company for almost 4 1/2 years and felt that I was no longer growing in tangent with the company. During the course of my time there I'd been going through a lot of things on a more personal level that I feel needs time to sort through and find peace with. I needed to allow myself to put myself back together so I can offer the best me that I can be for myself and the people around me.

What I will miss is definitely my team in the office who effortlessly cracks me up and made my working experience a lot more fun. The wonderful seniors who offered me guidance and advise and to say that I've learnt so much from these wonderful people is an understatement. My team was my second family and I'd like to thank them for always looking out for me.

Since my last day in the office 3 weeks ago (has it been that long?), I've barely gotten any rest. LOL!! I feel like I'm probably busier and more tired than when I was working. Even the family trip to KL during the school holidays last week was exhausting! Fortunately though, we managed to escape KL's infamous traffic jams while we were there. Haha. After 4 days of driving in KL, coming home driving everywhere just seems closer.

On a different note, I highly recommend watching Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa (English Title: The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines) if you have the chance. Probably the best Malaysian film to date. I was personally blown away and can't wait for more. Seeing the english title states 'chronicles', I'm guessing there'll definitely be more.

Here I leave you with the official english trailer for the movie:

Levi's Curve ID

2011-03-12T10:27:00.000+08:00

The beauty and fashion community in the internet has been abuzz lately by the Levi's Curve ID jeans which launched in Malaysia a few months back (although it seems that it's fairly new in the US). I've never actually ever owned a pair of Levi's jeans since they never fit me just right. Plus, it was uncomfortable for me to have my jeans slung that low.

With this new line of jeans, Levi's claims to have a fit for curvier girls or as they put it, embracing those womanly curves. Anyways, I decided to give it a shot and entered my measurements on their website to see which curve I fall under.

And I am:

I'll probably find some time to drop by the Levi's store here and see for myself how well these fit. If they are as amazing as they claim to be, I might just snag me a pair since I only have a couple pairs of jeans at the moment. And even those seem to be a bit more loved *ahem ahem*.

I recommend entering your measurements instead of taking the quiz to find your curve ID. I feel it's a bit more accurate since it uses actual measurements to identify your specific curve instead of your personal perception of how your body looks like. Have fun and you can share your curve ID in the comments if you like. :)

Undeleting

2011-02-20T04:24:00.002+08:00

I'm pretty sure a lot of us have either accidentally deleted photos or data from our memory cards or hard drives and wish we could take back what we'd just done right? Or the storage device just suddenly failed on us or gets corrupted? I used to think all is lost whenever something like that happens until I read an article in a computer magazine some years ago.

There is such a thing as "undeleting" or rather recovering those deleted or lost data from your storage medias (i.e. hard drive, USB drives, memory cards) as long as the data has not been overwritten with new data or information. So the key thing to keep in mind when something like this happens is to make sure you refrain from using the storage media prior to recovering your files.

If you're wondering what this magical solution is, it's actually pretty simple. The answer (at least for me) is Data Recovery Softwares.

Subsequent to reading the computer magazine, I did a quick search for the recommended software(s) and tried out PC Inspector Smart Recovery which worked wonders! It helped me to recover as much or the deleted photos as it could (unfortunately I'd already used the same memory card to take photos).

PC Inspector Smart Recovery

(Freeware)

A couple of years back, I was having some problems with my laptop and I ended up missing a partition. And woe is me, that particular partition was where I had a lot of my documents, photos and other data (without back up) and for some odd reason, the OS just wasn't recognizing the partition. I tried the software above but unfortunately, it can't search for items in a "ghost" drive. So I ended up on another search for a software to help with my situation. Thank goodness, I managed to find one that actually worked, DiskDigger. It totally saved me! It managed to recover the data from the entire hard disk (not just by partitions) and I got my data back. Yay! It is available free for personal use but you'll have to deal with some annoying pop ups which personally I didn't mind as long as it could scan and retrieve. The license, should you choose to purchase it, is priced at $14.99.

DiskDigger

(Free for personal use)

Another nifty little piece of software is by Piriform (I love their CCleaner and Defraggler softwares) and it's aptly called Recuva. The software can be downloaded and used for free but if you like, feel free to send a donation to the development team at Piriform without obligations. If you click the "Download" button on the website, you'll be brought to the Download page showing another button with a price tag on it. This is only if you want to download the software with Priority Support (which they recommend). Otherwise, just scroll down a little and there should be links to download it free.

Recuva by Piriform

(Freeware with option to donate)

And there you have it. Don't fret if you wiped out your memory card by accident or was hit by plain bad luck and there was a power failure while you were in the midst of cutting and pasting your files between storage medias. Just download one of these softwares (or other similar ones) and you should be all set. I'm not saying that these softwares will be able to retrieve every single thing for you but it will help to retrieve most of them (which is better than nothing right?). There are still certain files that these softwares are unable to recover though. And unfortunately, all the softwares mentioned here are for Windows OS only I believe. Care to share ones that has worked for you (and for other platforms too)?

Hope this little bit of info helped some of you. *smiles*

Online Shopping Just Got Better

2011-02-15T20:00:00.165+08:00

I love almost every form of shopping. Window shopping, retail, groceries and online shopping, I love love love it. Not everything in Malaysia is cheap and not everything is sold in or shipped to Malaysia. So in comes the wonderful world of online shopping.

Online shopping is big in the US and looking at the country geographically, online shopping is probably one of the most convenient ways to go these days. So how'd I get sucked in to this modern day shopping experience? Well, it developed from looking for cheap finds on eBay and Lelong to international sites that shipped to Malaysia (like Amazon.com) to checking out sprees & blogshops and then to getting so frustrated a lot of the things I wanted to buy were sold on sites that shipped internationally but didn't include Malaysia in their list or shipped only to the US and Canada.

eBay & Lelong

Image from Lelong

This is probably one of the most popular forms of online shopping available. There are typically 2 types of sales on these sites, auctions (highest bid wins the product) and buy now sales (direct purchases without the need to bid). Lelong was previously also known as BuySell.com.my and is quite popular locally. It is used by both commercial users (store owners, small business owners) as well as the regular customers (who occasionally sells second hand goods). What I like about Lelong is that they offer an option to verify your account with them via phone and NRIC verification so sales activities feels a bit more secure. Now, Lelong has a few other sister sites to further complement their existing services among which are Superbid.com.my (a 12 hour bidding fest held every Wednesdays) and Superbuy.com.my (an online store offering a host of different products to consumers at sometimes lower prices).

Image from eBay Malaysia

While Lelong is geared more towards the local scene, eBay has a much wider network of sellers and buyers. You can purchase from sellers abroad who accept international payments and offer to ship here. There are however a lot of scammers floating around on the site so there are some precautions to take to avoid having someone dishonor the sale. I'll talk more about what to look out for in another post.

Amazon

I used to buy books from Amazon because they had an amazing collection and well, frankly those days we didn't have big bookstores here. Book selections were also limited and buying from specialty stores can be quite costly. Amazon now not only focuses on selling books. They've branched out to selling just about everything you can think of. The Amazon Marketplace are also home to various stores (think Target, Sephora, Beauty.com, American Apparel, KarmaLoop, etc) as well as other sellers. You can pretty much find anything on there these days. It's still one of my favorite places to shop at.

Sprees & Blogshops

When it came to sprees, there are always sites or individuals conducting them every so often. Most of them list in the Low Yat forums and have even set up blogs and Facebook pages to interact and update their customers or fellow spree-rs. Sprees are events handled by a person to purchase items from a certain online (or physical) store whereby they charge a small charge on top of the actual product prices ordered by their fellow spree members. These handlers will take care of buying, taking care of shipment to Malaysia and repackage everything to be posted to the respective members.

Blogshops are also a dime a dozen these days. There are so many cropping up every day it is very difficult to keep up with. Of course you could refer to online directories like emmagem or Google product keywords. There are blogshops selling clothes, accessories, bags, shoes, plus size clothes, and even imported luxury items. As prices tend to vary a lot, it is best to scout around before emailing your orders.

US Online Stores

Like I've mentioned earlier on in this post, there are a lot of sites that ship to the US and nowhere else (except sometimes maybe Canada) or sites that ship to a list of countries that didn't include Malaysia. For these sites, like everything else, where there's a will, there's definitely a way.

Enter, the Virtual Shopping Hub (vsHub):

I've been using this service for the past 2 years and I love it. Of course there are some minor flaws but they've improved a lot with time. Presently, the site offers 3 services and ships to 3 countries (Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia). Signing up is absolutely free and they'll supply you with your US address to ship your orders to.

Services Available

Mailbox - You purchase items directly from the seller/store, pay with your credit card or via PayPal or Google Checkout and enter the US address supplied for shipping (remember, your billing address shouldn't be the same as shipping). All you have to do is forward the invoice and shipping notification to them and they'll receive your items for you and notify you when it has arrived in their warehouse.

My Shopper - Previously known as their Concierge service, shop via their My Shopper portal (linked in your Member's Page) and fill up the Concierge order form. They'll email you the purchase quotation and you can make payment via local Bank Transfer. You will be notified when the order is placed and received via email or you could monitor it from your Member's Page. Do bear in mind that there is a small fee involved and their fixed exchange rate is higher than the market floating rate. This service is perfect if you don't have a credit card or if the site you're purchasing from only accepts US credit card payments.

e-Fulfillment - This is a new service to help you with your business. There are 3 different packages to choose from and it's basically allowing you to use their warehouse for storage and they will also deliver the items for you to your customers.

Don't get me wrong, this is not the only one of its kind out there but after trying out others, I must say that I like this one best. They offer good shipping rates, are quite reliable and I've had very good experiences so far.

For more information or to sign up, click here to visit their website.

Bags Made With Love

2011-02-14T22:07:00.001+08:00

A few months back my cousin started posting pictures of bags she made for her daughter, family and friends. Her bags were clearly beautifully made and you could see she put a lot of thought into the materials used and all the other little details (like adding swivel clips for keys inside the bags). She started out making bags with remnants of fabric from other sewing or craft projects but has now invested in various designer fabrics.

She used to sew clothes for her daughter but has now found a new love in sewing bags. Her design method is very simple is based on what anyone would need from a bag and how the bag will be able to fulfill that need. Since then, she has started her own little business selling these gorgeous bags and you can check them out online.

Click on the image above to view her blog

Here are some of the designs that are available for purchase:

Dahlia Bag in Chrysanthemum in Gold ($39)

Available on etsy

Dahlia Bag in Red Olive Roses ($39)

Available on etsy

And here are some of her other works so far (click on the images to view the full post on her blog):

Clutches

Reversible Hobo in Denim and Modern Meadow, Sunflowers

Tulip Pleated bag in Alhambra

Mia Bag in Burgundy Wine

Baby Shoes

Phone & iPod Pouch

Bag Organizer

If you're interested in purchasing one of her pieces or if you'd like to make inquiries, do drop by her blog here.

Photo Credits: All photos and images are from This Side Of The Island's blog.

Singapore Haul: Bags & Shoes

2011-01-29T16:46:00.001+08:00

For those who know me would most probably have known that I was away in Singapore for my birthday last month. Naturally a little shopping was inevitable. This time around I didn't buy any clothes or accessories but rather just beauty products and bags and handbags.

Here goes:

Hard Rock Cafe Sentosa Pink Ribbon T-Shirt

from Hard Rock Cafe Sentosa

Guess Shoulder Bag with long strap

from Takashimaya

Mel Accessories Vibrant Blue Top Handle Satchel

(isn't the Mel charm gorgeous?)

From Isetan

Perllini Faux Animal Print Beige Tote

(I think the drop down tab accent is a nice touch)

From Isetan

Perllini Black Crossbody Bag

From Tangs

Cotton On/Rubi Casual Polka Dot Hobo Bag

(Would you believe it was only SGD10 with any purchase?)

From Wisma Atria

Sephora Nylon Tote

(got this free from Sephora)

Ripples Flip Flops

(Bought this at Escape Theme Park)

Black Folding Flats from The Little Things She Needs

From ION Orchard

Ked's Shoes

(Been wanting to get one of these for awhile, weehoo!)

From Takashimaya

I was super happy to find the folding flats! If you've worn heels or if you wear heels, you know these are lifesavers. I saw a version of this in Watsons (or was it Guardians?) from Scholl but those didn't have a full sole like these had. Plus these came with a nice pouch so it's very very convenient to just through in your purse/bag. The store in general (the little things she needs) is absolutely awesome! You can go there and get customized flip flops and they have a lot of other accessories (bags, shoes, wallets, jewelry, scarves) to browse through. Nice.

Of course, my family didn't forget to get me awesome birthday pressies too!

Gucci Guilty EDT

Puma Fitness Workout Bag

Parker Pens

LV Damier Ebene Speedy 30

In other words, last year started out pretty sad but ended with a bang. That pretty much concluded our first birthdays without my beloved mummy. Wish she was here.

A Bag Obsession

2011-01-11T16:01:00.000+08:00

On October 10th, 2010 (I'm a little behind on jumping on the bandwagon here), Mulberry came out with a collection in collaboration with Target (huge US department store) called Mulberry for Target. Needless to say, the bags were snapped up like hot cakes. Typically, Mulberry bags costs in the thousands of Ringgit (typically about GBP700 and above) so it's no wonder that a lot of the fashionistas on a budget in the US were super excite to pounce on these gems for a mere fraction of the price.

At the time of this post, the collection can still be viewed on the Target site here although all of the items are currently no longer in stock online (there might still be some in selected Target stores).

The past couple of months, I've been really into bags (I haven't bought a lot of bags in a few years - since University days maybe?). It's like there are so many bags out there that just captures my interest/attention. Still, I try to be as frugal as I can and not go crazy. Plus, I need to remind myself that I'm running out of storage space. I've also inherited a ton of bags from my mum (some haven't even been used!) so I've gotta keep this obsession at bay.

Anyways, after a brief Twitter chitter chatter recently, I've decided to get something from the collection while it's still available to purchase (not from the Target website obviously) from local blogshops importing genuine branded bags. Here's my final pick:

Images from Target.com

Can't wait for it to arrive. You can visit the blogshop here. I wanted to get this design initially though:

Image from Target.com

The design for the Large Velvet Satchel is more like the classic Bayswater design by Mulberry with an additional heart shaped charm. I finally decided against it cos I've had a similar designed bag in the past (which I've since sold off) and it wasn't exactly convenient to access your items in the bag. I just prefer zippered top closures I suppose. Of course all that preferences are not set in stone or anything so I might still get bags with flaps like this every now and then. Getting back to the bag, as much as it was tempting to me (I was even considering getting one of each before I talked myself out of it), I remembered I'm not such a big fan of patent leather. It is visually very very attractive though I must admit.

Although, this bag from Charles & Keith (~RM259.00) that I saw recently seems to combine elements of Mulberry Bayswater and the Miu Miu Coffer, don't you think?

Images from the Charles & Keith website

I'm also eyeing another LV bag and of course, another classic LV design:

Image from Louis Vuitton website

The two designs I've come to love from LV are the Speedy 30 (although the Speedy 35 seems tempting too since it's bigger) and the Neverfull MM. I much prefer the Damier Ebene Canvas to the monogram mostly because the dark handles means lower maintenance. I just made myself look super lazy there. Haha. But the Monogram Canvas definitely have a bit more designs available compared to the others.

I considered creating a fashion blog or even converting MySewingProject into one but for now, I'll just bombard this blog with my fashion-related post. :)

2011 New Year Resolutions

2011-01-10T01:26:00.000+08:00

Usually come the new year I'd be frantically scribbling my new year resolutions with the hopes of fulfilling them by year end. After many failed attempts despite being super specific and jotting down the details on how to achieve my resolutions as well as attainable measures, I've decided to not obsess over the whole resolution "tradition".

This year, I won't be having any resolutions per se but rather a guideline of what I want to do throughout the year which will prolly be an on-going thing anyways. So here's a general idea of what my personal guidelines look like:

What they are and what I'm going to do to achieve these is up to me and I'll sort through it as I go.

Anyways, hope all of you have an amazing year ahead and to better things to come.

Movie: The Tourist

2011-01-06T16:42:00.001+08:00

Sorry peeps. I know I've been missing from this blog for a lil bit and I'd like to start off by wishing everyone an amazing 2011!! *smiles*

Anyways, it's been awhile since I talked about a movie (I think). Haha. The latest movie my family and I went to see was The Tourist starring the incredibly talented Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie.

Image from byterology.com

What Is It About?

The story is basically about the pursuit of Scotland Yard for the elusive Alexander Pearce who owes the government a whopping GBP 744 million in back taxes. They kept an eye on Elise (Angelina Jolie) awaiting Pearce to contact her in hopes of a chance for them to nab him. Taking a cue from the instructions in his note to her, Elise hops on a train from Paris to Venice and becomes friendly with an American tourist on the train, Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp), a Maths teacher to throw the Yard off the chase. A lot of chasing and action ensued especially since Reginal Shaw (Steven Berkoff) enters the picture to retrieve the cash swindled/stolen by Pearce whilst acting as his personal finance advisor.

My Thoughts

The movie started out allowing the audience to try and figure out what was going on before unfolding the storyline bit by bit. The script was intelligent, witty and littered with humor which was delivered beautifully by the cast. I enjoy movies that keeps you interested throughout the entire film and ones that makes you not expect the ending. This was one of those movies. Johnny Depp was brilliant in embodying his character's vulnerability. Angelina's performance was superb in showcasing the different layers and roles of her on-screen persona. The chemistry between these two power A-listers was undeniable, I'm surprised this is their first movie together. Bravo to Quentin Tarantino and his cast and crew.

Have you seen the movie yet? What are your thoughts on the film?

Backlogs: B2.0 Preview Dinner

2010-12-04T11:06:00.002+08:00

Blogging and social media has evolved into a fast growing community with huge potential. In this day and age, internet celebrities are becoming more and more common. Twitter and Facebook is now no longer brushed aside as a marketing tool. In fact, I personally feel that it's a rather powerful tool because (1) there is a vast amount of users on both networks and (2) it lets you communicate with your customers/clients in a more personal way too.

Recently I had the opportunity to meet some of the top people in the Borneo blogging scene at the B2.0 Preview Dinner at The Roof Restaurant, Imperial International Hotel here.

So what's B2.0 all about anyways? Here's a snippet I snapped from their website. Click on the image to check out their site.

The B2.0 event was organized by Borneo Colours with the support of Sabahan Bloggers, Sarawak Bloggers and Beleter Community. There were a selection of speakers lined up for the event covering topics from Blog Monetization to Managing Your Personal Brand to Start Ups Challenges & Opportunities. For more info on the event, do click on the image above.

Unfortunately due to work (it was held on a Friday), I was unable to take part in the actual event. And it was an event I was really looking forward to attending. Nevertheless, I was able to go to the Preview Dinner and meet (and see) some of the speakers as well as catch up with old friends.

For more photos from the preview dinner, do check out the official B2.0 website here.

I am generally a pretty shy person who at time feel awkward in public (it's been awhile since my socially apt days) but I did get the opportunity to talk to Azrul Rahim and Addy Kho. Not that I said much or that it had much relevance to the dinner or the event. I admit, I'm pretty bad at conversation topics and I really should work on that. In fact, when Azrul asked me what nice places or activities to do here if they had just one day to explore, my mind went completely blank. I know that Sabah is a place where people go for it's nature (i.e. climb Mt Kinabalu, dive at Sipadan, see Orang Utans in Sepilok, embrace the tropical jungles in Maliau Basin, research the ecosystem in Danum Valley, check out the first Survivor site at Pulau Tiga, white water rafting at Padas River, etc.), enjoy basking in the sun at our resorts and islands or go shopping at the Filipino Market downtown. As for more casual activities, there's paint ball, island escapades (day trips), the Lok Kawi zoo, picnics, futsol, wall climbing, and things like that. So yes, I sat dumbfounded and practically speechless. *facepalm*

But all in all I had a great time and hope to see this event returning to our shores soon.

Backlogs: Halloween 2010 with Boutique Cupcakes

2010-12-04T10:14:00.001+08:00

Since I've been away from my blog for a little too long, I figured I'd start posting some backlogs to share with you stuff that has been happening so far that I've been fortunate enough to be apart of. Let's start this backlog series with the Halloween party at the Boutique Cupcakes store at Lintas Station:

Boutique Cupcakes

No. 45 & 46, Ground Floor, Lintas Station, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

(Click the image above to be transported to their blog)

It was a cozy affair with good company, tons of free cupcakes in the classic chocolate and vanilla flavors (they had carrot cupcakes too!) with cute Halloween inspired fondant designs and savoury snacks to boot:

And what would Halloween be without the sweets?

We even had a little ghost staged out by one of the BC team:

Thanks for the invite Fara!

Looking wicked. ;)

Names Influence Who You Are?

2010-11-16T14:13:00.000+08:00

A lot of people scour the web and baby books to find suitable and meaningful names for their newborns. Does it really make a difference whether your child's name means beautiful, honest, wise, and so on and so forth? Do names actually play a part to determine or rather influence who you are? Your personality, the way you view the world? Or is it a matter of nature vs nurture?

Personally, I have no idea. But from observation, I have noticed some similar traits in people with the same names (which unfortunately examples elude me at the moment).

Many many years ago (when I was in secondary school), I was acquainted to a website introducing the Kabalarian Philosphy which studies first names since 1930 and for a fee, provides you with an analysis report of your name based on the research they've done. I am not endorsing the accuracy of this website or this method or philosophy but it's always fun to explore.

So here's what they say about my first name:

You have a great love of nature and the out-of-doors.
All the finer things of life and beauties of nature are an inspiration to you and you are attracted to the mysteries of nature.
Difficulty in expression results in your being too positive, blunt, and candid in speech and although you are easily offended by others, you do not show it.
You crave affection and understanding, but rarely find it as others do not understand you and accuse you of being cool and aloof.
The average person would never realize the true depth of your nature.
Although first name creates an interest in the deeper aspects of life, we emphasize that it causes a blunt expression that alienates others.
This name, when combined with the last name, can frustrate happiness, contentment, and success, as well as cause health weaknesses in the lungs, heart, bronchial area, and tension or accidents to the head.

There is also a free standard name report service that provides evaluation of your first name, last name, the combination of both names and birth date analysis (purpose of life and inner potential). But for that you will have to fill up another form and they will email the results to you. I personally have never tried this service despite it being labelled as "free". With all the marketing gimmicks implemented on the internet these days, even free means "it's free if..." and you start getting spam in your inboxes (no bueno).

Personally, I see some truth in their brief analysis of my first name above. But I wouldn't be too sucked into the whole concept though. It's interesting that there even is a study of names since a lot of names were given because they sounded nice/beautiful, from an ancestor, trendy, religious... and the reasons go on. More often than not, the decision to name a child isn't scientific.

Have you tried the website to check your name? How close were they to your personality?

For those who know me in person, how true do you find the above description to be of me?

One Step At A Time

2010-11-15T13:26:00.001+08:00

These days my time has been filled with work, home and gym. Of course I try to make time for friends as well and was glad that I got to do that last weekend.

I'm still in the process of reorganizing my room and it has been taking longer than I'd planned. I've bought the new pieces except for one big piece and am just excited to start putting everything together and be done with it. Haha. Hopefully I'll get everything done by month's end.

Work has been draining me still and no longer fun for me as it used to be. I believe that you should love your job. When you no longer do, it's time to move on and take on other challenges. I really wish that my mum was here for me to talk to her about my concerns. I could definitely use her wisdom and advise right about now.

OK. I'm kinda getting off track here. Anyways, I've started another blog that follows my thoughts and experiences while losing weight, being healthier and improving my fitness. I'll also be talking about other related topics there based on my own experience, observation and literary research. If you'd like to read more, you can check it out here. I've also put a link up top so you can easily click on the image to head over to that blog.

Need to get me some food now. So, til next post!

30 Day Challenge... Can I Cope? (Post #9)

2010-11-11T19:18:00.000+08:00

This was a pretty ambitious and rather tall order to fulfill and I'm beginning to find it to be quite a chore to be honest. So, here's what I'm going to do. Instead of a 30 Day Challenge, I'm just gonna look at it as a 30 Post Challenge and it will come along in order but not on a daily basis.

I've been quite overwhelmed lately with everything going on. And I will have to take this at a slower pace than is entailed by this challenge.

For the 9th Post: A photo I took...

I'm not really sure what bird this is but if anyone of you out there knows, drop me a comment and let me know. This was taken quite recently at Pacific Sutera during my BFF's pre-wedding photoshoot. The poor bird supposedly had broken its wings and couldn't fly off. You could seriously get super upclose and the bird won't budge. And the colors were so vibrant.

For the 10th Post, I'll have to go digging in the family photo album or something to share. Til then (and posts in between).

Here are a few updates:

My online boutique which launched some time in February this year will be closing its doors very soon. I'll be having a clearance sale very very soon when I get the chance to sort through everything. At present I'm unable to make the boutique as I'd want it to be and I'm not much for half-hearted ventures. I had a blast with the boutique and thank everyone for the experience.
Since I've started embarking on improving my fitness level (and losing weight in the process), I'm going to finally come through with my fitness and weight loss blog. That will be up soon. I feel it might help as motivation as well as a means to track my progress and hopefully inspire some of you to increase your fitness as well as be healthy. I'll also be posting some things about weight loss supplements and slimming centres and share some of my experiences with you.
My beauty blog 30 Day Challenge will also be following in the footsteps of this challenge.
I've been posting a bunch of reviews on my Luuux website (link here) which you can go and check out. So far there's been a bunch of elf product reviews there which I'll be listing on my beauty blog soon.

So that's all for now.

Much luv,

Day 8: A Photo That Makes You Angry/Sad

2010-11-09T11:47:00.000+08:00

For Day 8, I'm supposed to share a photo that evokes anger and/or sadness for me. For me, I don't generally have a photo that gives me that effect. But looking at a photo of my mummy for instance when she was happy regardless if she was already sick or not makes me (wanna) cry because I just miss her so and I do feel sad that I can't spend time with her anymore like I used to.

Other types of photos that makes me sad are photos of abuse. It just freaks me out. Seriously.

What kind of photos make you feel angry or sad (or both)?

Day 7: A Photo That Makes You Happy

2010-11-09T00:47:00.001+08:00

This is a bit tough since I don't really know which photo makes me happy. But anything with my baby brother definitely puts a smile on my face. I can't really describe it. Haha. Imagine me lost for words. This might be the shortest post in the history of my blog and I'm contemplating actually putting a photo here with good reason.

A more general type of photo that makes me happy will have to be a photo with 2 people completely and madly in love with each other, they needn't say a word to prove anything because their skin glows and their eyes sparkle. It's kinda cliche but yes, if you look closely, you may just catch that glimmer. It just makes you remember all the beautiful things in the world.

P/S: Would you believe that this is my 100th post for this blog? So happy. Thanks to everyone who've supported me here.

Love.

Day 6: Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

2010-11-09T00:40:00.000+08:00

So Day 6's challenge is to blog about anything I feel like blogging about -- in other words freestyle blogging. There are gonna be a few of these posts coming up (Day 12, 18, 24, 30) and I'll get to them accordingly.

Now I'm going to be talking about something that has just caught my attention and that's this really cool online photo editor called "Picnik":

Since Blogger saves it's images on PicasaWeb, I was clicking around and as I clicked on the "Edit" button on the somewhat top right corner above the images, a new window (within the site) emerged and up came Picnik.

So what exactly can you do with Picnik? Here's an idea:

Click on the images above to enlarge

(Hold down the "Ctrl" or "Command" key to open in new tab)

You can also download the editor as a plug-in or add on to your browser (click here for a list of supported browsers).

More fun stuff you can do with Picnik:

If you haven't tried this out yet, definitely give it a shot. You can use the editor on photos from a host of websites (PicasaWeb, flikr, facebook, photobucket, myspace, webshots and web) as well as your computer. And guess what? This service is free, no registration required! (Of course if you like, you can opt for the Premium account at $24.95/year)

Day 5: Your Favorite Quote

2010-11-09T00:01:00.000+08:00

Okies. For my Day 5 post, I'm supposed to write about my favorite quote. This will require some extra thinking since off the top of my head I can't really recall any particular quote deemed a favorite of mine. I know usually when I do hear or read it it'll totally hit me to be a quote that I love. Let's see.

I've lived by this quote for the longest time. I believe that if you don't like other people to do something to you or to act a certain way towards you, then you should keep in mind to not do those things or act that way towards other people as well. It's a very simple concept but is very very important to practice in my opinion.

Another one that I've come to believe and have been proven true time and time again is that everything happens for a reason and usually when you're faced with a sad event, adversity, problems and generally depressing things, when you feel like your world has gone gloomy and you can't ever imagine the days will get better and everything will be OK, just keep pushing through and something good will await. In a way it's saying don't give up hope and faith and just keep at it.

So yea, those are my I suppose top 2 quotes that I live by. What's yours?

Day 4: Your Favorite Book

2010-11-08T19:04:00.000+08:00

So the Day 4 topic was my fave book. Wow. Honestly. I haven't read a lot of books lately to even be able to have a fave. Nonetheless, for this challenge, I'll share a few of the books that I'm loving:

Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual by Bobbi Brown (RM127.81 from Kinokuniya)
I absolutely love this book. I think if you're starting out with make up and want to learn tips and tricks and improve your make up application skills as well as the types of products to use for your skin (and others), then this is a must have book. I have a couple other Bobbi Brown books that I've recently purchased but have not had a chance to fully appreciate the contents yet. I love Bobbi for her simplicity and her philosophy of bringing out the beauty inside a person without having to hide the person under a ton of make up. Her style is very laid back yet concise.

Generation T by Megan Nicolay ($10.37 from Amazon.com)
I'd originally read this book when my mum picked it out for me at the library while we were browsing for books to borrow (actually she was browsing, I was the person who carried the books). I loved it! There were just so many ideas to transform a regular T-shirt and I just had to get my own copy. It totally introduced my to the T-shirt reconstruction community on LiveJournal (I'm not a member, just a viewer) and to an awesome fashion student (then Biology student) called NinjaToshiba (now known as ricesushi02). There's a sequel to the book with more projects but I think I still like the first one.

The Right Moves by Tina Schwager and Michele Schuerger (RM62.65 from Just 4 You)
This book I've had for 10 years (bought on 6 November 2000). I was having terrible self-image and body issues when I was in school (and am still struggling with now) and this book is simply amazing. I totally recommend this to everyone whether you're a teen or a young adult (heck, or a full blown adult). It's divided into 3 main sections addressing mental preparation/positive mindsets and motivation, food and working out. It helped me a whole lot during that time and it's a book I need to get back to now to remind me about feeling good about myself. This is definitely one of the best books I've read so far.

Day 3: Your Favorite Television Program

2010-11-04T10:26:00.000+08:00

I have a whole lot of fave TV shows and I'll list a few here for today's topic:

Bones

- Photo from Don't Call Me Bones! -

Glee

- Photo from Season 8 -

Ghost Whisperer

- Photo from DVD Collects -

Criminal Minds

- Photo from Watch Criminal Minds Online -

Day 2: Your Favorite Movie

2010-11-04T02:58:00.001+08:00

I know I said I was gonna post Day 2 late yesterday but I was so exhausted from training and other stuff it just didn't happen. So it looks like today will be Day 2 after all and this challenge should end on Dec 1st.

Anyways, to the post of the day: My favorite movie...

Cruel Intentions

- Photo from Similar Movies -

The movie was the modern interpretation of the movie "Dangerous Liaisons" and featured younger talent. The movie is a classic for me. Love it.

Again, I can't really say that this movie is my only fave because it isn't. I love watching movies and a lot has impacted me one way or another. A few other movies that I've recently love:

How To Train A (Your?) Dragon
The Expendables
Inception
The Backup Plan
Twilight Saga
Harry Potter

And believe me, the list goes on and on. *smiles*

See you again tomorrow!

Day 1: Your Favorite Song

2010-11-02T08:30:00.001+08:00

Some time in July I had put up a post on the 30 Day Challenge (Click here for the post) and since it's November I thought what better time to do it than on a 30-day month? OK, I admit I'd actually forgotten all about the challenge until recently while browsing Luuux.

So here's my first entry for the challenge:

Enrique Iglesias & Juan Luis Guerra

"Cuando Me Enamoro"

- Video from EnriqueIglesiasVEVO YouTube channel-

The song title translated means "When I Fall In Love" and is a beautiful and sweet song about the feeling of falling in love. Here's the lyrics to the song from elyricsworld.com:

Ohh, oh, ooh, oooh

Si pudiera bajarte una estrella del cielo
lo haria sin pensarlo dos veces
porque te quiero, ay
y hasta un lucero

Y si tuviera el naufragio de un sentimiento
seria un velero en la isla
de tus deseos, de tus deseos

Pero por dentro entiende que no puedo
y aveces me piedro...

Cuando me enamoro aveces desespero,
cuando me enamoro,
cuando menos me lo espero, me enamoro
se detiene el tiempo, me viene el alma
al cuerpo, sonrio, cuando me enamoro

(Ohh, oh, ooh, oooh)

Si la luna seria tu premio,
yo juraria hacer cualquier cosa,
por ser su dueño, ay, por ser tu dueño

Si en tus sueños escuchas el llanto
de mis lamentos,
en tus sueños no sigas dormida,
que es verdadero, ay,
no es un sueño, no

Y me alegro que aveces al final
no encuentres un momento, ooh no...

Cuando me enamoro aveces desespero,
cuando me enamoro,
cuando menos me lo espero, me enamoro
se detiene el tiempo, me viene el alma
al cuerpo, sonrio, cuando me enamoro

Cuando me enamoro aveces desespero,
cuando me enamoro,
cuando menos me lo espero, me enamoro
se detiene el tiempo, me viene el alma
al cuerpo, al cuerpo, sonrio,
sonrïo, cuando me enamoro.

I wouldn't say this is my fave song of all time but this is my most current favorite song. I heard it in a taxi on the way to the airport while I was in KL recently and absolutely fell in love with the song. Honestly, I love so many songs I can't even decide which are my favorites for sure.

For Fun: Shopping Tag

2010-10-29T00:03:00.000+08:00

So I was browsing through Luuux.com and I stumbled upon this tag and thought it would be fun to post here since I haven't been very good with posting on my blog of late. Enjoy!

1. What is your favorite way to shop? Online or in the actual store?
I think that shopping in an actual store has it's benefits and if it's clothes, it's great to be able to try them out first and see yourself in it physically before you make a purchase and if it's cosmetics, you get to swatch the product and see how it looks on your skin and feel the texture before buying. Plus you get to bring home your purchase immediately. But I won't cancel out online shopping either cos for one thing it's quite convenient especially if that something that I want to buy isn't available locally or isn't readily available. But then again, it's nice (although sometimes frustrating) to come home to a newly arrived package. :)

2. What is your favorite store?
I love shopping in general I don't even have a fave store. But if you're talking about stores that I frequent then I'd have a list. I buy stuff from so many stores for specific items.

3. What store do you buy the most things from?
Haha. Watsons.

4. What is your favorite thing to shop for?
Make up and toiletries. And gadget but I'm trying to cut down on that cos it's super pricey.

5. Do you usually pay with cash, credit, check or debit?
Cash or credit. Only sometimes I'll use debit when the facility is available. I never shop with a check since I don't think there are any stores that accept check payment. Haha.

6. Are you addicted to shopping?
I definitely am and it does tend to escalate. I am trying to channel my addiction elsewhere though.

7. Are you in major debt because of shopping?
Fortunately no.

8. How often do you go to the mall?
Since I started working, not to often. I used to spend a whole lot of my time at the mall while I was studying. Malls give me such a calming feeling. I feel so at peace when I'm in a mall.

9. What is the last thing you bought?
Foundation I think. Wanted to try the Revlon Colorstay one.

10. What store was it from?
Guardian.

11. Who is your favorite person to shop for?
Besides myself, I love buying stuff for family and close friends. I usually don't plan on buying but it's more of whichever feels like it suits the person.

12. Would you ever buy clothes at walmart?
I prolly would if they had Walmart here. Although I think I'd prefer Target better if they had it here.

13. Do you own a pair of shoes that cost more than 200 dollars?
Nope. The most expensive ones that I bought costs below RM200.

14. Do you ever use coupons?
If available I do try to use vouchers but coupon clipping is extremely uncommon here.

15. Do you buy most of your clothes on clearance?
I wouldn't say most but usually I buy them at either discounted or bargain prices.

16. Have you ever shopped till you dropped?
The stores usually close well before I dropped.

17. Do you ever try things on at the store?
I didn't use to when I was a much smaller size. Now I have to just to make sure the clothes fit me in terms of size and flow.

18. Who is your favorite person to go shopping with?
Haha. Myself. Usually when I bring friends to shop, they end up buying stuff and I always ended up not getting all the things I set out to buy. Haha.

19. Do you choose paper or plastic?
Honestly, plastic. Paper just wont hold up for me. Anyways, most plastic used in stores today are bio-degradable and disintegrate with heat. Of course now you could always bring along fabric totes. :)

20. Do you use a basket, cart, or nothing?
Depends on what I'm buying.

21. When you check out, is the total always more or less than you thought?
More. Haha. Sometimes it's less if I didn't know there's a discount.

22. Are you an impulse shopper?
Sometimes I can be but it's great that flea markets and bazaars are really coming up here. It helps. And I have younger brothers so some of the stuff goes to them.

23. Do you always buy the candy that they sell next to the registers?
No. I'd get mints but that's just cos I've finished the pack I always like to have in my purse.

24. If you had to pick one thing, shopping or chocolate, which one would you pick?
Shopping. Are you serious? There's no contest.

Feel free to copy and paste the questions above if you feel like doing this tag. *smiles*

Awesome-st Team Building Session...

2010-10-15T16:31:00.000+08:00

Normally I'd be pretty much against outdoor activities especially since close proximity to flora and fauna totally makes me feel uncomfortable. Having just gotten back to work on Monday after what is possibly a 3 week break awaiting my contract renewal *bliss*, was informed by my colleague that I'd be joining the Team Building session at OBS (Outward Bound Sabah) the next day. She sent me the itinerary and reading the words "dormitory", "high ropes", "jungle walk", "kayaking" and "rafting" all in 1 page just sounded uber scary.

Anyways, I don't exactly know what came over me (possibly the long break) but I just packed that night and after work in the morning headed over to OBS at noon. I'd honestly surprised myself those couple of days. It was like my fears stepped aside as soon as I arrived. Amazing I tell you. If you know me personally, you'll know how much of a miracle that was.

I didn't take any photos of my own and practically left my cameras behind so here are a few photos from the session from my colleagues' cameras:

Putting on my harness getting ready to climb

Finding my grip and footing (I ended up getting a boost from my colleague)

My leg muscles weren't strong enough and I tried my hardest to go all the way up and not give up. Unfortunately, I fell short of 1 more step (the top part was super slippery with damp moss) because I just couldn't find anything to hang on to. Nevertheless, reaching that far up was an accomplishment on it's own. Yes, I was that close to the pulley. FYI, according to the instructor, the wall was prolly 30ft high.

My belay and the anchor (Many thanks)

The gang after our wall/rock climbing experience.

I was the only one who kept slipping, losing my footing, sliding off, dangled from the rope/cable and twirled and slipped getting down. Haha. But it was all fun. Got me some bruises to mark that experience too! Everyone was very supportive and although they kept checking if I'd like to come down if it was too hard for me, they totally helped cheer me to the top.

And yes, we had to wash our own dishes and the serving dishes too. Fun stuff.

At our bonfire by the beach that night. We were left on a jungle trail blindfolded and had to rely on each other to get to the bonfire site. Another first experience for me but having all these peeps there made me feel at ease. Of course when there is a bonfire, there will be song. :)

How amazing is this shot of the bonfire my colleague took? Epic!

Up early in the morning to head to the beach for our morning warm up and stroll on the beach. Here I am with the only other female in the group (and staff in the office).

Beginning our morning stroll. :)

Isn't this view simply divine? The waves splashing against the rocks at the distance looks so magical and fantasy-like.

2 teams, 2 rafts. We used 4 tubings, 8 short bamboo stalks and loads of ropes for each raft. If you're wondering, yes, we had to race, then disassemble the rafts, rinse everything and put everything back into storage.

All geared up to go kayaking. I totally underestimated the weight of a kayak. OMG it was sooooo much fun. The instructor brought us into the water to first test our life jackets to make sure they'd float and then we had to all experience overturning out kayaks and learn what to do in the event it does overturn before we even start out with the activity.

Woohoo. All of us received certificates. Hehe.

More photos:

Amazing experience as a whole. :)

The week before all this I was pretty much busy with getting light fixtures, kitchen cabinet quotations and things of the sort plus super busy being there for my BFF on her wedding day(s). Was super duper excited to be doing her make up too. All that will probably be in another post.

La Fuente on a Sunday...

2010-10-04T00:30:00.001+08:00

So honestly this isn't the first trip to La Fuente - Tapas Y Bebidas (literally The Source - Food & Drinks), 1Borneo. Today was our second time there.

We had absolutely no intention of going to 1Borneo today but after remembering there was a small property fair there ending today (this was during a morning birthday party), we decided that it would be our next stop. There were some interesting properties in the market (read: RM1+ million penthouse duplex with private rooftop garden at Puncak Luyang) including an amazing steal of a property in Menggatal (940 and/or 965 sq ft 3r+3b apartment units for under RM200k).

Anyways, after the fair, we decided it would be nice to catch a movie and off we hopped to the cinema and bought tickets to see Alpha & Omega's 3.50pm show. Cute animated wolf story with some beautiful howling "music". Storyline is pretty predictable but a nice light-hearted show nonetheless.

Ah yes, getting back to La Fuente (yes, it's obviously a Spanish restaurant), behold our meals:

Ceaser's Salad

- lettuce, croutons, chicken, mushroom

Cream Based Mushroom & Chicken Ham Penne

(The Spanish name was a tad too long for me to remember)

Beef Ribeye

- with sauteed vege, mashed potato & (blue?) cheese sauce

Roast Chicken

Chicken Tikka

My verdict? I was delighted to find that the Ceaser's Salad was actually quite nice although I do enjoy my lettuce to be little more bite sized (no matter, I'll just tear them apart). Croutons were definitely a nice touch to the salad (can you tell that I have absolutely no idea what goes into a regular Ceaser's salad?). My first dining experience here I'd gotten the Salmon fillet dish and that was yummy (I might be biased because I love salmon). This time around I decided to change it up and go for penne. A lil odd considering I'm eating Italian in a Spanish restaurant. No big surprise in taste here though. My brothers all had different dishes: Beef Ribeye (which was ordered well done but came medium rare), Roast Chicken (with a sauce I haven't the slightest clue what it is) and Chicken Tikka (an Indian dish in a Spanish eatery? And it had bones!!).

Just a quick post on today's endeavours. Til next time!

Couldn't resist...

Better Late Than Never... Selamat Hari Raya

2010-09-30T02:56:00.000+08:00

I am clearly behind on greeting everyone Selamat Hari Raya on my blog. And the festive season is also coming to an end soon (say next weekend?).

The Raya (or Eid) celebrations were modest yet definitely a lot of fun this year. It was weird though being our first Raya without my beloved mummy. Her birthday had just past last weekend and we bought her 12 multicolored roses which apparently means Happy Birthday (the number of roses not the colors that is).

I'm excited to play with some electronic toys I've finally got around to get for myself. I'll probably share them here soon or simply tweet a photo of them. I've already tweeted about my latest toy *ahem - purchase*. There are a few features that I still need to get used to but generally I'm pretty much settled in. I love how huge it is too!

I'm currently having a pretty nice break and am definitely enjoying my extra time. It is after all something that I've been wanting to have for awhile. That said, I still do have a gazillion things to do which I'm crossing off my check list a little too slow for my liking. As you can (or can't) tell, I'm a whole lot of night owl and that definitely doesn't help with waking up as early as I'd want. Ggrr...

Anyways, I've kinda figured that I might just hold out for the next iPhone or at least not rush into getting the latest one just yet. No, it has nothing to do with the antenna "issue" (i.e. antenna gate). It's just that I've been on a "toy" spree the last few weeks that I feel I should save some cash for later. I'm crazy tempted at the moment but sometimes you've just gotta let the rational mind take hold of the shopaholic in you (or maybe not.. haha).

So til more updates, thoughts and posts. TTFN!

Ramadhan and Fasting...

2010-09-03T16:34:00.001+08:00

So this post is a bit late considering we're approaching the end of Ramadhan (a.k.a. fasting month). Anyways, Ramadhan began on 11 August 2010 and today is Day 21 (if I counted correctly) which means Hari Raya Aidilfitri or Eid 'Ul-Fitr will be in 9 days *hurrah!*

In Islam, fasting begins at dawn (approximately 10mins before Subuh or morning prayers) until Maghrib or sunset prayers. During the month of Ramadhan, there'll be loads of food bazaars (aptly named Bazaar Ramadhan) providing a choice of a myriad of food, local cakes and beverages to visitors. These bazaars start as early as 2.30pm til sunset (around 6.30pm here). If you're from outside Malaysia, an excellent time to come visit (if you're interested in sampling the food here) is definitely during Ramadhan. If you have friends here, stay on til the Eid celebrations and get a feel of "open houses" which simply means visiting houses of relatives and friends and you'll be served a host of local delicacies from rendang, curry, serunding to Raya biscuits and cakes.

Muslims all around the world have been abstaining from food and water during the day for the past 3 weeks and some non-Muslims have also joined in to fast to either join their Muslim friends during this Holy month or for health purposes. I have been acquainted with people who consider fasting as a detox session or an opportunity to shed some extra weight. I suppose it's easier to refrain from eating and drinking when those around you aren't tempting you to go out for lunch. *haha*

My fasting experience this year thus far has been a bit different than previous years. For one thing, it's our first time fasting without the presence of my beloved mummy. It has been that much more tough on me personally and most nights I cry myself to sleep (which isn't such a good idea since it makes it way harder to wake up in the morning for work). The fasting month started out a bit shaky for me with me experiencing high stomach acidity. I could practically feel the acid fumes (for lack of a more suitable word) at the back of my throat which trust me is a nasty feeling to have. At one point I felt like throwing up and fainting. No, fasting isn't a bad thing. I'm just stubborn and refuse to break fast early and forfeit my fasting day to seek medical assistance. *haha* After a week or so of roughing through it, my gastric got better. I think it might be the 1-a-day multivit & mineral tablet that I took. Gave me more energy throughout the day to. *double woot for vitamin B*

** Josh Groban singing "To Where You Are" on the radio ** *bliss* &heart;

A few fasting tips for those of you who experience frequent gastric episodes:

Make sure to eat a filling meal during sahur or breakfast. Not too full though.
Make sure to let the food settle at least 30 minutes before going back to bed.
Don't forget to drink enough water to avoid severe dehydration and dry throat during the day.
Don't eat spicy, peppery or excessively oily food during sahur.
Minimize or refrain from drinking acidic beverages during the fasting period (i.e. Coca Cola, Lime Juice, tea, etc.)
If you feel your stomach acidity is higher than usual, have a glass of isotonic or alkaline drink when you break fast

I generally don't do any exercises or workouts during this month simply because my body can't take any extra physical activities. Even when I'm performing my daily tasks at work and at home, I get light headed. This is of course just me. I have friends who still frequent the gym and workout studios during this time and they're able to exercise just fine. I have tried exercising during fasting month before but made a personal decision not to because my body is just not up to it. *haha*

Happy fasting everyone and have a very wonderful Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

Blu Inc and Goodie Bags...

2010-08-07T10:48:00.001+08:00

While I was in uni, Blu Inc (the company behind Seventeen, female, Marie Claire magazines etc.) held their first ever Bumper Celebration with goodie bags, freebies and all those good stuff and I went to every single one of them while I was there. To my delight, a month ago I saw buntings hung up on lamp poles with the words "Blu Inc Bumper Rewards 2010, 6-8 August 2010, 1Borneo Centre Atrium" and I got super excited in the car.

So me being me, got myself 3 magazines (seventeen, female & Marie Claire) and redeemed 3 goodie bags (and 3 lucky draw entries):

Aren't these bags just cute? Perfect for No Plastic Bag Mondays too! I should have these handy in my handbag when I go out. So let's see what's in the bags:

There were samples and vouchers and a few full sized items. I was kinda disappointed I didn't get anything from Shu Uemura in my goodie bags. I don't know if the contents of the goodie bags are different on different days. So you never know, I might drop by and get myself another goodie bag just because. Haha.

There was however one expired item in one of my goodie bag which was kind of a bummer:

Apart from the goodie bags and lucky draw entry, there are also a bunch of other coupons you can use to redeem for freebies and discounts/vouchers. Marie France were giving free hand treatments (basically moisturize your hands with their lotion/cream and dipping your hand in warm paraffin wax), Skinz had 20% off if I'm not mistaken, Esprit, SaSa and Xixili were also giving special discounts.

Here are a few other things I redeemed:

Recycle bag from Eu Yan Sang

(coupon in magazine)

BB Cream from SaSa Outlet

(coupon in magazine)

Masks from Skin Food Outlet

(coupon in goodie bag)

On a different note, I dropped by the PC Fair which was going on downstairs as well and was kinda disappointed with it. My enthusiasm died as soon as I started going round the area. Haha. Anyhow, I will be going again just to make sure I didn't miss anything I wanted to get. Haha.

Update: I went back today (Day 2) and dropped my lucky draw entries. Although my entry wasn't picked out for the draw, I did manage to snag myself a Marie France Bodyline treatment for playing one of their stage games. Haha.

Last Day of London Snippet...

2010-08-03T19:14:00.000+08:00

On a lighter note, I know I said I'd blog the photos I took during my London trip with my baby brother in June but there's just so many photos. I had to create 3 albums for it on FaceBook! So here's a little raw snippet of our last day there (at Westminster near the London Eye):

London was definitely a lot of fun and it would've been nice if I'd been able to indulge in the shopping experience there as well, especially Primark! I can't imagine how cold it must be in winter (or autumn for that matter) because the spring-summer weather was a whole lot cooler than I'd like. I heard that after we'd gotten back it started to get warmer (scorching even) though. Maybe next time round if we go there again, it'd be nice to try out AirAsia X's flat bed seats with a daily direct flight from KL to London (Stansted Airport).

AirAsia X Premium Seats

Word of Caution...

2010-08-02T14:34:00.001+08:00

Recently I watched an awesome review (and then some) on the ghd stylers and thought of getting one myself. It heated up quickly, has a safety feature (it turns off if left idle for 30mins) and not only straightens hair perfectly, it also curls (or creates soft waves). I checked online and it sold for RM600 and above but I remembered that a store sold it locally.

So there I was excited to get my hands on one and dropped by the store to check it out. The salesgirl was relatively nice and convinced me that I needed to be aware that there are China made fake ones out there and I should be careful not to be fooled. She reiterated what I'd already known, that the product was top of the line and was highly popular. After some negotiating, I managed to get the price down to RM320 from the original RM360 (~11% off) and a 1 month warranty (?).

What I purchased: The ghd Styler IV Pure

I went online to register my new purchase (pictured above) on the ghd website for the 2 year warranty that comes with all ghd products and an error kept popping up at the end of the registration process informing me that there was a problem with the codes I entered. So I took the next step of ringing up their customer service to talk to on of their representatives and she confirmed the codes won't register because the product I'd bought was a fake and she suggested I returned it to the store and demand a full refund.

Furious, I went back to the store a few days later with the item and when I told them that I've tried registering it on the website and called CS and was told that the item was fake, the owner of the store told me that it was made by the brand but at their Korean factory. She said that it's true it's not China made but like all other stores selling ghd here in Malaysia, they're the Korean made ones which is not exactly fake and is of better quality than their China versions. This was information withheld from me (the consumer) and subsequently she tried to keep twisting the facts and convincing me that it's not fake (nor was it genuine). She'd even sarcastically implied that it would cost me RM1000 and above to purchase online and get it shipped here and probably wasn't even worth the warranty period guaranteed by the company. I was blatantly refused a refund supposedly because firstly I'd paid by credit card (which was complete BS because these days you can get refunded even when paid with credit cards) and secondly because it was their store policy to not give a refund to their customers regardless. She kept saying that many customers had bought the same item and never had a problem using it.

After much talk, she seemed clearly annoyed and simply said that if I really didn't want the ghd Styler, I could exchange it with a different product and she showed me some BaByliss Pro Nano Titanium products (the whole range). She pushed for me to buy the hairdryer (dries hair faster and costs RM400+ I think) and the straightening iron (which costs RM500+). Being left with not much choice, I opted to get the curling tong which she was selling for RM310 (RM10 less than what I paid for the fake product) and she threw in a cheapo who knows from where soft touch curling mousse (RM17.90) for free. She wanted me to pay for the friggin mousse which I didn't even need but after looking at my hesitation and again her obvious annoyance with the whole situation she gave it FOC. I would've expected her to suggest a good heat protectant since I was purchasing hot styling tools but she kept insisting that I needed the mousse to create beautiful natural curls.

The infernal store:

Au Yong Trading Co., City Mall (behind Guardian)

So the above is the store where I'd been fooled by misleading information and all the above mentioned. One of my aunt's had also purchased a facial steamer from the store and the steamer was defective and had water dripping from it when in use. I would imagine it being a steamer that the water would be on the hot side too. She complaint and sent the device back to the store for repairs since it was under warranty. Of course, when it came back the problem persisted and by then my aunt wasn't too happy with the purchase and the after service. Needless to say she too will never buy anything from that store again.

Just thought I'd share that piece of information and put it out there so any of you thinking of making a purchase there would be more cautious. Also, I was looking at a make up train case at a nearby beauty store at City Mall (e.Noveal) and saw the exact same BaByliss Pro styling tool that I bought that was retailing for RM280 (before discount) with a 6 months warranty (Au Yong gave 3 months). That was pretty disappointing.

On a lighter note, I'd just gotten back from my office's Family Day event which was held in Beringgis Resort last night. The preparation works were exhausting but worth it seeing that everyone was pretty happy receiving their doorgifts and hampers (as well as goodies for the kids). The lucky draws were a success as well and went pretty smoothly despite all the rush behind it what with not having a ready MC until right before the sessions. All the staff who'd attended that night had a 75% chance of winning and everyone was excited and happy including the kids who had their own little lucky draw session as well. Now that that's done, it's back to fully concentrating on work and deadlines and the million urgent things to tend to with everyone chasing from every which way as usual.

Tonight the whole family went to watch Salt at Suria Sabah and it was awesome! The action and amazing genius that is Salt (the character -- and yes, Angie was wonderful as Salt) was just a pleasure to watch. Of course there were sensitive issues touched in the movie such as the US-Russian relationship and the attempt to deploy nuclear missiles to Tehran (Iran) and Mecca (Mekah) both of which are Muslim areas. Personally, I'll take a more liberal note on it. I'd much rather not politicize a movie and take it for what it is -- a movie.

Rushing Through Singapore...

2010-07-26T14:46:00.000+08:00

I love travelling and last weekend (not the recent one) I went on a planned trip with my brother to Singapore. At the time we had purchased our tickets, it was intended to be a day trip with us spending a few hours in the Lion City. A nicely timed 11am flight via Jetstar to Singapore and an 8pm flight back via AirAsia.

Luck had it both airlines rescheduled and infomed us of the retimings. Jetstar left almost an hour before the original time and that was fine by us. Supposedly more time to roam around. Now AirAsia on the other hand made more drastic changes. An 8+pm flight had been retimed to 5.35pm which is an incredibly huge jump. Seriously, 3 hours short? Which left us with possibly at most a 1 1/2 hour timeframe to enjoy Singapore. Needless to say, I was deeply disappointed. To add to that, it was my brothers first time there and I really felt bad he wasn't able to explore the country more. What was even more agitating was the fact that AirAsia was not contactable via their new "Premium" call centre ("The number you have dialled is incomplete") and their non-existent Live Chat service which basically said that all their operators were unavailable for chat. I've never had that problem before with companies like ComGateway or HP. I had to instead fill up a form with my enquiries and guess what, I received a reply more than 24 hours later. What a damper. Imagine if it had been a business trip and the meeting ended later than 5.35pm and I'd bought the ticket for 8.30pm? If the variance was an hour it would've been easier to reschedule or itinerary for the day. But I guess it's just better business to get people to miss flights and get them to buy new overpriced last minute tickets instead eh?

Anyways, there was no apologies or compassion on the insane rescheduling. I probably should've just cancelled the whole trip. Would have if it wasn't because I'd promise my brother the trip for many months. Not only did we miss our flight (as expected), we had to purchase a brand new ticket and since there was no early flight even for Jetstar (earliest was at 10+am while AirAsia only flew 1 flight direct to KK at 5.35pm) the next day, we had to fly to KL then get another sector to KK the next morning on the 6.50am flight.

Although tired, we managed to enjoy the trip and took a more positive look at the whole experience. After buying the new tickets, we checked in early (dropped off our bag closer to departure time) and had lunch at 6pm. Before missing our flight, we went to Orchard Road (I love that place) and got to check out Ion Orchard which I personally find to have by far the most confusing building layout ever. After our "lunch" we decided to head on down to Bugis Street and was happy my brother loved it and managed to do some shopping for himself. We weren't rushing as much then. Earlier on we practically breezed through Orchard and it was less that satisfying for the shopaholic in me (fortunately I reminded myself the trip was for my brother). Maybe next trip. *smiles*

I'll post my purchases (i.e. haul) on my beauty blog which is currently on 2 blogging platforms (OnSugar and Blogger). I'm testing out a different platform to see if it suits the nature of the blog better. I'll be renaming the Blogger version of the site to the new one on OnSugar soon. Still trying to figure out how my header should look like. I want to have more content (hauls, reviews, first impressions, etc) on there.

Back to the story of the trip, we were basically crazy exhausted. To make things worst, both of us didn't get enough sleep the night before the trip and would've been fine if everything had gone to plan. We thought about checking in to a nearby hotel while waiting for our connecting flight to KK from KL but decided against it due to the short time in between (4-5 hours). We felt it wasn't worth the extra cost. After 2 hours, sleepiness was already creeping in. By 4am, we ended up sleeping at one of the corner eateries til the hustle and bustle began at about 5am. Haha. Fun times. It was probably the longest time I've spent with my brother in a long time.

Soon as I got back, got home and went to get ready to see my bestie who I was supposed (and promised) to do her make up for her shoot that day. Felt bad I wasn't there in the morning as promised but I did managed to salvage her afternoon shoot some what (I hope). I love make up and having the opportunity to try it out on someone other than myself was just a thrill. Maybe I'll get that opportunity yet again some day. *beams*

30 Day Challenge

2010-07-16T15:05:00.000+08:00

I know I'm a little late but I'd just stumble onto Petrilude's personal YouTube channel (click here) and was introduced to the 30 Day Challenge which was supposed to be done the whole month of June where you can either blog or vlog about the designated topic daily for a period of 30 days (obviously, LOL!).

So basically here are the daily topics:

Day 1: Your favourite song
Day 2: Your favourite movie
Day 3: Your favourite television program
Day 4: Your favourite book
Day 5: Your favourite quote
Day 6: Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 7: A photo that makes you happy
Day 8: A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 9: A photo you took
Day 10: A photo you taken over ten years ago
Day 11: A photo of you taken recently
Day 12: Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13: A ficitonal book
Day 14: A non-fictional book
Day 15: A fanfic
Day 16: A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17: An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18: Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19: A talent of yours
Day 20: A hobby of yours
Day 21: A recipe
Day 22: A website
Day 23: A YouTube video
Day 24: Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25: Your day, in great detail
Day 26: Your week, in great detail
Day 27: This month, in great detail
Day 28: This year, in great detail
Day 29: Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30: Whatever tickles your fancy

I found it interesting to give it a shot. Let me see if I actually have answers for all those topics and maybe (quite likely) I'll try it out. I know it's already July but it's a fun thing to do isn't it? *smiles*

Under A Microscope...

2010-07-14T12:49:00.000+08:00

Working in the corporate entails a lot more than being a civil servant would in my opinion. Of course you'll get some b*tching and talking behind your backs experiences. Not to mention people who takes glee at pulling you down. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there and for those of you who are still studying and ever eager to jump on the working world bandwagon, I'd say stop and enjoy your young student life to the fullest.

Don't get me wrong, I love being in the work force. It means more independence plus a steady stream of income which as far as this money oriented world is concern is never a bad thing. Generally though, working for the government is a lot more laid back than for private companies and establishments. More often than not, you'll have a whole lot of time on your hands to get your work done and then some. The busiest times are usually when there's an event of sorts coming up. Of course, let's not forget the government exams involved every once in awhile too. I believe benefit-wise, working for the government does have its perks (plus allowances).

In private companies, busy is an understatement. Work load is continuous and expections are high. A lot of what you do requires justifications and reason. Depending on which company you work for, work hours can either be rigid or a lot more flexible. Bear in mind however, you may be expected to work extra hours whenever necessary. A 9 to 5 job might not necessary mean you get to pack up and leave the office at the stroke of 5pm. Certain times, you may have to work later due to stretched meetings or simply to finish up work for the day to avoid accummulating it the following day. As far as benefits goes, it varies from company to company and depends on which level or job position you're at and whether you're a contract or permanent employee.

The thing about working for someone is sometimes you get lucky and get an understanding boss who looks after and stands up for his/her subordinate. Other times, you might not be as fortunate and end up with a boss who (a) enjoys nitpicking your work and finding fault in everything that you do (especially if you're better at your work than he/she is), (b) adamant to know your every move from what you're doing now to what you're going to do the rest of the day (or week) and where you were, are and will be, (c) doesn't bother about your work, hardly around and fails as a support system for the team, (d) wants everything done now and seems to be on a constant PMS-esque state and (e) appears to be helpful (or eager to be helpful) and sing praises or acts all jovial and "nice" in your face but morphs into the I-did-everything-my-team-members-are-such-bums mode sucking up to upper management when you turn your back to them.

With all these funky characters roaming about the offices, some genuine hard workers and good samaritans and them bad apples it just makes you wonder how does one stay motivated to continue to perform well in their respective jobs. Rolling with the punches is easier said than done and when life hits you with more lemons than you can squeeze, making lemonade can be a chore and your enthusiasm and spirit can get shot down in the crossfires. Analogies aside, feeling comfortable in your work place is essential considering you'll spend 7-9 hours a day throughout the week at work.

After 5 long days a week of work, the weekends become extremely precious. Long weekends are a gift. What I miss most when I'm working is not being able to spend as much time with my siblings and family. I see them a few hours a day and sometimes not at all which is sad since we all live in the same house. I barely get to meet up with my friends too but I try to as much as I can. Fortunately there's the phone and Facebook or we'll be completely disconnected. Haha. Don't even get me started on personal time. For me personally, it's almost nil but I do my best to squeeze it in whenever I can. My main things to do to unwind? Staying home watching TV, being on the computer immersing myself in YouTube videos, blogging, editing and reading a book (not to mention chillaxing with my siblings).

I believe the most important thing when you're working is to always find time to get away from it all and just take a vacation. It doesn't have to be far (or overseas although that'll be super!), a trip to a nearby resort for a couple of days, fishing, snorkeling, rock climbing, massages, basically whatever makes you happy.

Happy working everyone!

Sleepless Nights...

2010-07-08T05:57:00.000+08:00

I've always been a night owl and not much of an early bird. At some point I did manage to train my mind to sleep and wake up in a more decent schedule but I'm struggling with it yet again. Last night I only managed to get about 40 minutes of sleep. Despite the unhealthy nature of my nocturnal tendencies, I do not intend to consume sleep medication to help with my problem. I was prescribed some muscle relaxant for my aching arm muscles some time back and although it's not supposed to, it made me sleep a bit too soundly and I found it harder to get up in the morning despite going to bed early.

At times when I can't sleep, I'll catch up with work, watch TV, rearrange/organize/clean my room or do plain ol' computer stuff. It gets annoying though because I have to work in the morning through to sometimes 7pm and my lack of sleep affects my brain functions particularly in the morning. After noon I start warming up a bit and get back on the rhythm of my work. Clearly it's a disadvantage for me to start functioning a bit late in the day so as much as I can, I'll stay on a bit later just to prepare documents and information for the next day or following work day.

In the mean time, I'm still working on getting my sleep patterns to work out better so I can take advantage of the mornings as well as the afternoons more efficiently. Sometimes the problem is my eyes are sleepy but my body is still restless so I usually end up jumping out of bed and look for food or surf the internet or something. I'm thinking of joining some kind of dance class or a yoga/pilates class to give my body a good workout and hopefully help me sleep better (and easier) while working out a sweat.

I'm considering giving Core Fitness a shot and drop by for the early morning classes before going to work. Will swing by there one of these days to check out membership pricing and stuff like that. I think one of my mum's friends is an instructor there too. My mum did suggest I join the aerobic class her friend teaches at the Sports Complex as well but it gets dark pretty early here (around 6.30pm) and me going there alone with a dimly lit parking lot isn't exactly safe in my opinion.

Another time passer for me would be playing around with my make up. I don't wear a lot of make up on a daily basis. Sometimes I just slap on moisturizer and a sunscreen and I'm out the door (our skin needs to breathe too). Most days I'll just do my brows, curl my lashes (sometimes I'll go with or without mascara), lip balm or lipstick and a quick brush of powder. If I feel like it that day, I'll throw in some eyeliner as well. That's about it. But I LOVE make up and my collection seems to have grown quite a bit now. Wanna see? I've always loved make up but now I can actually afford to buy them so that gets me super excited.

Ah yes. The World Cup is coming to an end and it's going to be Netherlands vs Spain in the finals. Gonna be an exciting match and fortunately it's on a weekend. Haha. Think I'll root for Spain. Hurm. Poor Brazilians though. They got a lot of flack from their people for getting booted out in the quarter finals and the blunders in the 2nd half of that game. Anyways, venha Brasil, their president wants the people to not dwell on the past and prepare for World Cup 2014 on home grounds. That should be exciting and hopefully Brasil will reclaim their title as champions then.

Well, it's almost 6am and I guess I should just get ready for work or something since I'm already up. Hopefully I don't fall asleep in the office which will be hard to do with the amount of work I have. Haha. Anyways, my London haul video (Part 1) is almost ready to upload I think. Oo wait, uploading now.

So until next time!

Implications Of The Written Word...

2010-06-29T13:58:00.003+08:00

Twitter can be like texting. Texts (SMS) are limited to 160 characters per message and Twitter is limited to 140 characters per tweet. There's only so much you can type within those constraints to get your message across. Of course there's the long message option which lets you type as much as you want and get it sent in several messages and TwitLonger which is the equivalent for Twitter (which unfortunately is not supported by Echofon and the Twitter website).

Anyways, the thing about the written word (like books and other printed publications) is what you say can easily be taken out of context. Depending on how the reader phrases the sentences, what you type/write can be misconstrued and thought to have malicious intent even if those intentions were never there.

A few months back I was tweeting about how Carly (Hanh's bestfriend who'd just gotten started with YouTube videos at the time) had 8,000+ subscribers on her channel in a month. I got a mention from a girl who was an aspiring vlogger and beauty enthusiast on YouTube stating her amazement at the numbers. She seemed like a nice person so we both subbed each others channels and followed one another on Twitter.

She'd tweeted before that she wished that she could buy MAC products and recently she did at her local CCO and put up a haul video sharing her finds. It's always nice to see people being able to buy things they've been wanting to get and that's among the reasons I love watching haul videos despite the bad rep they get sometimes. Anyways, while watching the video, I kept getting distracted with her head movements and I felt annoyed that I was distracted by it.

Let me clarify. I've always been comfortable with calling myself weird because I have odd quirks that my friends so lovingly joke about. I have mild OCD (although not clinically proven) but there are things that completely annoys me and to most, they might not even be anything at all. I used to arrange my books a certain way in my hostel room while I was still studying and get irritated when my things aren't put back where it should be. For me, everything has a place and I live off organization products (organizers, multiple shelves, containers, boxes, plastic drawers, dividers, etc) and I love having my things in it's own space and compartment. I like my clothes hung with the hangers facing the same way and preferably with the same type and coloured hangers, shirts according to colour and sleeve length and type and same goes for dresses too. If you've read my previous post, you can probably tell how excited I was to install the 2 boxed shelves in my wardrobe cupboard to segregate my polo t-shirts, skirts, shorts, home pants, home t-shirts, sports pants and leggings. I was also excited to have my makeup brushes and long chain necklaces organized. I enjoy filing and can get a little too meticulous doing it and can go through several different designs/fonts for the labels before being fully satisfied. I can't stand repetitive gestures (but am more tolerable if I know it's related to a disorder like spasms and other gestures/movements - i.e. blinking, nose scrunching, face twitching, muscle spasms).

Come one, I even use a mug holder to hold sticky tapes (various sizes) on my desk in the office. My colleague at work always make light hearted jokes about the way I eat, saying it's too systematic. When I eat, I make a general assessment of the amount of food on my plate before I begin so I know how much I should have on my spoon when I eat. If I'm eating meat, I'll spend the first few minutes slowly and carefully removing all (and I do mean ALL) the meat from the bones, separating any skin, fat, tendons and other non-meat parts as well as chilli flakes, parsley (I can't eat parsley, it overwhelms my tastebuds and I can't taste the rest of the food), chilli seeds, etc before I start eating. The eating part on its own is a pretty quick process. I always try to scoop a balance amount of veggies and meat and rice/noodles/potatoes with every bite as well.

OK, so now that you're acquinted with my quirky weird side (which is far more obvious when I'm eating. Haha), let's get back to the post.

After the Twitter comment, I proceeded to watch another video of hers prior to the haul video where she explains her eye condition. I thought it was great that she was bringing to light and creating awareness on Congenital Nystagmus and talking about how she lives with it. She also prides herself in being able to overcome her disabilities to come out as a straight "A" student and accomplish all that she has accomplished so far as should anyone her condition should. It's always an inspiration to hear stories like hers, unfortunately even in her video/vlog talking about the subject, she stated that she wasn't comfortable discussing the subject and seemed rather insecure about it (which I suppose explains her high sensitivity to the matter). After finding out about her condition and sensing her insecurities on the matter, I quickly switched to my Echofon and deleted my comment on her 'head bobbling' being a bit distracting before she could read it. Now, turns out in my thread it was deleted but somehow she still got the comment. Her response (read from the bottom up):

I was caught by surprise and tried clearing things up with her. I also apologized for the misunderstanding. If you know me, you would know that I had never meant it to be rude and that I never judge anyone. In fact, I always remind my siblings to not judge people because you never know what they're going through. My comment was simply honest feedback which I thought she would have appreciated to improve her videos. Again I'd like to reiterate, I wasn't aware of her condition prior to the tweet. Here are a few more comments we exchanged on her YouTube video:

I didn't have a problem with her eyes moving, I merely suggested that since I noticed her head moved far less when she looks at the camera than when she has her head down. I also noticed that her head movement is fine when she turns to the side. It's only when her head is down. Looks like my suggestion was again misintepreted as offensive. I'd even commended her on enjoying doing YouTube videos which I believe to be a good thing. She claims that I judge her when she contradicts herself by judging me and attacking me when my comments were based on my own OCD condition. Like I said, guess everyone gets misunderstood. She tweets on her page that I didn't get that she's not taking rude comments from anyone and that apparently I wasn't getting it. Ironically she also tweets that it was just the wrong topic and the wrong day (she doesn't like Mondays?) and I suppose that coupled with her fear of being ridiculed spurred some sort of retaliation on an innocent and harmless suggestion and honest feedback.

Here's her nice little summary about me (read from the bottom up):

With reference to the middle tweet, this is what I had tweeted prior:

I know it might not have been necessary to have even composed this post on this particular subject but I felt compelled to illustrate the impacts of the written word. It's like poetry. The poet creates his/her poem based on his/her emotion at the time and does it with words. The same poem read by someone else going through a different set of emotions can see different meaning in those same words. Although I may not have a lot of readers on this blog and I do it because of my love for writing, I thought that it would also be good to spread the awareness on her condition since it is not something one would come by often. I have no hard feelings towards her even though she thinks I'm a jerk and blocked me on both YouTube and Twitter and propagated my "jerk-ness" to her followers. I got misunderstood and my words misintepreted, c'est la vie.

Our London Hotel Dilemma...

2010-06-29T01:10:00.001+08:00

A few weeks back my baby (he's not really a baby) brother and I took a long awaited vacation. Well it was for me personally anyways. I've been sooo stressed up with all that's been going on at work and everything else this was a very much welcomed delight (and surprise).

We had our travel arrangements (i.e. flights) set and booked our hotel online and even got the London Pass ready for the trip. I'm not sure if I'll be doing another post on the trip or not (maybe I will with photos of places we managed to go to) but this post is basically gonna be about our disappointment with the hotel we'd booked online and should've gone for our first choice right from the start (which is where we ended up going to).

So basically, we went to the Hotels-London website to check out hotels (below GBP100) in the Bayswater area and after reading the reviews, viewing photos of the hotel and some discussion, we decided on Princes Square hotel which is about 400m walk from Bayswater tube station.

This is what the hotel room looked like on the Hotels-London website:

Gorgeous right? The price range for a night's stay in a Double Room was between GBP70+ to GBP90+ at the time. We didn't mind if the room was small. Apparently, hotel rooms there are comparatively smaller than what we Asians are used to. Anyways, imagine our surprise when we went up to our room and found it to look a little like this:

This photo is from the hotel's website and the photo above is of a Triple Room I think. We wanted a Double Room (i.e. with a Double Bed) and when we checked in we were told that they didn't have a Double room available for us. Instead, we were checked into a Twin Room (below - photo from Agoda).

Even the beds there aren't the same size as those we Asians are used to. Their twin beds were really single beds (not super single) and we barely had room to move around in there. I wasn't feeling well during my stay there so we didn't really take any photos of the room. Good thing we managed to get a refund for 7 out of the 9 nights we'd booked there (had to pay 2 nights stay due to their 48 hours cancellation policy). The room was hot and suffocating. We'd requested for a fan and that made it a teeny bit better. Fortunately they had a pretty decent tower fan but it took up more space in the room. The closet was about a foot deep and the only thing that was pretty nicely furnished was probably the bathroom. Haha. The reservation came with breakfast and well, the breakfast serve was OK. They had cereal, fruits, oats, breads and buns as well as yoghurt with coffee and tea as well.

We felt misled and deceived. Fortunately we got to move. So before checking out the next day, we went to a nearby internet cafe (GBP1.50 for 75mins) and made bookings for the other hotel that we'd originally wanted to stay at. We managed to get internet rates for the last 7 nights and regular published rates for that day which wasn't that bad.

Being Malaysians abroad, really makes you miss home. So we ended up switching to Berjaya Eden Park Hotel which was less than 20m from Bayswater tube station. *smile*. So this is what the room looks like on the Hotels-London website:

We only managed to get the Superior Double Rooms which are the newly renovated rooms (yay!). For TV buffs like us, the 32" (I think) LCD TV was great compared to the 14" CRT wallmounted TV in our previous hotel. There weren't even decent channels to watch in the previous hotel. Now you might say that we should be outside exploring London instead of staying in the room watching TV. But honestly, it would be incredibly boring without TV there (considering lack of freely available WiFi connections in the city). Stores close early and attractions are mostly closed at 5.30pm. What else was there to do after dark (we roam around til it's almost dark and head back after dinner)? We loved that the new room was more spacious and we could unpack and pack more comfortably (we came with 2 luggage bags and went home with 3 ballooned up luggages plus carry ons and plastic bags). By the way, the room looked exactly like the photos above. :) They didn't have a lot of fans stocked up and the last one they had and brought up (a tower fan) to our room was faulty. It was practically toppling over!! I was amazed that they still thought it was OK to use it honestly. Haha. Just because it blew wind didn't mean it was safe to use especially with the top part detached from the base and was practically only held together by the internal cables. We requested they took it back and spent the nights sleeping with the windows open (cool breeze).

Although we got a Double Room at Eden Park, the bed was still a foot shorter than my Queen Size bed at home. Weird. I thought Queen Size beds came standard. The bathroom was nice and sufficient despite it's size. And the wardrobe was a lot more spacious for our jackets/coats and bags and shopping treasures. Best part is they actually had a safe inside the room which was really handy. I would've liked the room to have a double lock like the ones we have in our hotels here instead of just the knob lock (which can be opened by the housekeeping staff despite having turned the lock). Since we were in the newer wing (I think), we had to take a flight of stairs up to the 1st floor then either another flight of stairs on another part of the building or the lift to the second floor.

OMG the lifts in both hotels were tiny!! I'd say equivalent to a 1 or 2 star hotel in KL? If you've been to Agora Hotel at Bukit Bintang, it's kinda like that. The hallways are super narrow and the same goes for the stairs. Nonetheless, the staff at Eden Park were really nice and helpful. I wouldn't mind staying there again if given the chance. Bayswater is a nice place to stay. There are lots of souvenir shops along the Queensway Rd and there's lots of eateries in the area. There is a mall at the end of the road near Westbourne Grove called Whiteley's that has stores like H&M, Zara, Tie Rack and a few more. I believe they even have a cinema in there somewhere. And of course a supermarket (Marks & Spencers). Across the street you can drop by SuperDrug and Boots (local drugstores) which usually open til 11pm or mighnight (except on Sundays where everywhere is closed early).

Anyways, Tune Hotels are opening their London hotel soon and it's located smack in the middle of the city at Westminster Bridge Road. Looks decent and it's practically across the street from Lambeth North (Bakerloo Line) tube station and nearby the Waterloo station (Jubilee, Northern and Waterloo & City lines) as well. Since it's by the roadside, buses shouldn't be too hard to come by either.

iOS4 and the 3GS...

2010-06-26T02:44:00.000+08:00

Finally after all the anticipation and anxious waiting, the iOS 4 was released on Monday (June 21st, 2010) in the US (late night June 21st/early morning June 22nd in Malaysia) and just about everyone rushed to get a hold of the latest OS for the iPhone & iPod Touch (I think it's also for the iPad but I'm not too sure). Me being me just had to get it done almost immediately. I would definitely recommend syncing and backing up your iPhone first before updating just to kinda speed the process up a bit if you haven't done it in awhile. The update will require you to download the latest iTunes software (version 9.2) as well.

Anyways, here are my thoughts on the new OS on the 3GS (the iPhone 4 comes preinstalled with iOS 4 and will be available in Malaysia tentatively in August 2010). Let me warn you this is going to be a pretty long post on one particular subject, the iOS 4 as experienced on the 3GS:

Multitasking

Double tap the home button and up pops the multitasking dock. A lot of techies out there are still debating on the fact that Apple's take on multitasking isn't true multitasking but for me, it works. Once you open an app, it automatically gets added to the dock and when you switch between apps, it saves the screen information and idles while you are attempting other tasks. In this essence, apps are not running in the background save for music which continues to play even when switching apps. I've not tested this yet but supposedly when you're net browsing it will load the page while it sits in the multitasking dock before idling. In other words, it completes the last task before going to sleep. The dock shows 4 apps at a time and you can see the rest of your apps by swiping to the left (like you would unlock the screen). Supposedly the OS will determine which apps are to be removed from the dock automatically but who knows how that works really. Personally, I manually remove the "running" apps the same way you delete an app on the home screen (only instead of and "x" badge it shows a "-" badge.

Folders

Folders for me was a nice addition to the new OS. I love having things organized as much as I can and although these folders doesn't have nesting capabilities, the execution was done quite well true to Apple's signature simple style. Creating folders is easy, simply drag one app on top of another and a folder is automatically created with miniature versions of the apps icons nicely placed inside the folder icon plus it automatically names the folders based on the categories of the apps you group together. Of course, folder names are easily edited. This is done by tapping on the folder you want once the apps start jiggling. To take an app out of a folder, simply drag and drop it to the home screen. Although each folder holds a maximum of 12 apps, the icon will only be able to display 9 our of the 12 apps on the homescreen. I managed to group my apps and downsize the number of pages from 11 (max) to 5. Yay!

Cosmetic Upgrades

There were a few cosmetic upgrades that I noticed starting with a couple of new icons for the Calculator and Notes app respectively. Shown below is an image I found (credit: Multi-touch fans forum) illustrating the evolution of the calculator icon:

As for the Notes icon, I might be wrong but I don't recall it having look like a couple of pages have been torn off (like a regular notepad would). Of course this could've been a change that came with OS 3 and I forgot about it. In which case, silly me.

Another thing I found interesting was the fact that somehow the icons and display were a tad more crisp. I reckon they've upgraded the icon resolution to cater to the Retina Display of the iPhone 4. The permanent dock at the bottom of the screen has also undergone a makeover and now looks similar to the icon dock on the Mac OS.

You might have noticed an obvious enhancement to the home screen - custom wallpaper. You can choose to have the same image for both the lock screen and home screen (done by default upon updating) or have different images on both.

Mail Improvements

When I'm out of the office, the Mail app is extremely important. Since I only read e-mail from one account on my iPhone, I haven't tried the unified mailbox feature. However, I'm really excited about the threading feature now integrated in Mail. Threading is one of the main reasons I prefer GMail to any other e-mail provider. It makes following e-mail conversations a lot easier especially since the iPhone can only store a limited number of e-mail messages at a time. Another feature added complements GMail quite well. That's the ability to archive messages instead of delete them.

Now, instead of asking if you want to save your draft e-mail or discard it, it asks if you would like to delete or save the draft which isn't a huge change but it makes things a bit more clear especially with the Delete Draft button in bright red.

Camera Zoom

To be honest, I wasn't too excited with the enhancement to the Camera app. Digital zoom even on a regular camera doesn't deliver good picture quality so I wasn't expecting much. The photo output compared to that taken with the Free Zoom app is brighter but delivers comparable quality. The slider appears by tapping anywhere on the screen.

Add Contact Info

Previously to insert a new contacts name you'll be brought to a different screen to key in the First Name, Last Name and Company information. Now, it's in the same screen. Simple but should have been this design in the first place.

Search Options

I love that we can search messages now. I've been waiting for that feature for a long time and am glad it's included in iOS 4. It makes it easier to find a specific message amidst the massive amount of messages stored in the phone. Messages is also searchable via Spotlight Search (page on the farthest left). Spotlight Search now allows you to customize and select which items to search which is great to help you search through certain applications only under Settings > General > Spotlight Search. It also comes with the ability to search for the search term instantly on the web or on Wikipedia.

The browser also has an additional Search provider added to select. Welcome Bing to the iPhone Safari.

Additional Settings

For those of you who are wary of your cellular data charges, the new OS comes with an option to block your apps from accessing the internet by switching cellular data on or off under Settings > General > Network.

A new feature that a lot of people have been looking forward to is the alphanumeric passcode capability. Of course you can opt for the simple 4 digit numeric passcode if you so wish.

Messages

The Messages app got a few tweaks in and are not exactly mind blowing but helpful to some I'd say. First is the character count (nothing new in most other brand phones) which is only visible if you're typing more than 1 line of text (makes sense though considering 1 line of text would definitely be well below the 160 characters per message limit). The second add on is a spellchecker which I've personally not encountered as of yet despite typing in Messages and Mail numerous time. I've also read elsewhere there is an option to add words to the spellchecker if (and only if) the word was not in the preset dictionary.

Photos

Just the other day I was annoyed at the fact that there was at the time no way to select multiple photos in the Camera Roll to Share, Copy or Delete. Imagine my delight when I discovered that this option is now available. Excellent.

Attaching photos on your phone to Mail comes with sizing options as well. Choose between Low, Medium, High or the Actual Size. I can't seem to get mine to work that way though. Is there a particular way to get it done?

Yep. You're seeing correctly. Photo albums are viewable in landscape mode. Did I mention photos has geo tagging as well?

iBooks & iBookstore

The popular iBooks app introduced in the iPad has now been brought to the iPhone (comes with the complimentary iBook Winnie The Pooh). For the avid reader, this is an excellent addition. Please do note though that the iBooks app doesn't come preinstalled with the iOS 4 update and you will have to download it yourself from the App Store (for free). What's an iBooks app without the iBookstore. I'm a bit disappointed that the books selection currently available in the store leaves much to be desired for. I'm not sure though if it's due to the regionalized store or if it's iBookstore for the iPhone in general. All I can find in the store are books under Project Gutenberg.

Other New Enhancements/Additions/Changes

With the past OS, a list of previously typed URLs appears when you start typing the site address in Safari. The new OS now shows a list of sites based on your browsing history containing words (and parts therein) that you've entered in the address field.

I've also come across user comments indicating that the new OS also has intelligent highlighting of dates and other numbers linking it to the relevant applications. I've always only noticed that phones numbers displayed on sites can be tapped to call.

In the far left of the multitasking dock are the music controls (previously accessible by double tapping the home button). These controls works with most music player apps (I think). These controls are still accessible by double tapping the home button while in lock screen as per before. Notice the odd icon with a arrowed circle on the far left? Well, you can now lock your screen in portrait mode (unfortunately you can't lock it in landscape, yet) by tapping on that little icon.

I'm a bit annoyed though that YouTube videos shifts to portrait when you turn the phone upright. It means that I can no longer twist and turn lying down and watch YouTube in full landscape mode.

According to Apple, you can also now gift apps purchased at the App Store. Not really sure how that works though. I've noticed a plus sign on some of the pricetags of applications. Could that be it?

For iPod users (both on the iPhone and iPod Touch), you can now create custom playlists for your music.

Other items that I noticed are:

The progress circle now sits next to the battery gauge on top of the screen instead of next to the time
You're no longer asked to rate an app when you're deleting it from the Home Screen

Gizmodo has an awesome guide for the new OS here.

As much as I appreciate the new bells and whistles, I do still have a few things on my iOS wishlist:

Ability to lock to 3G network only (especially great when you need to stay in 3G) with a good infrastructure to support clinging on to 3G
I'd like for the photo album creation feature to return from I believe the 1st generation iPhone as it's quite cumbersome to only be able to add/create albums in Photos via iTunes
A shortcut to turn WiFi and/or Bluetooth on or off bypassing the Settings screen. In a similar manner the portrait lock is done perhaps?
It would really be nice if we could select multiple apps (an app download list?) before having the App Store whisk you away to the Home Screen to proceed with download. I'm not expecting a never ending list of downloads (that won't be practical now would it?). A download list with a limit of a few apps added at a time would suffice.
Another thing that annoys me is the notifications you get when you're on the phone taking a call and you receive a message at the same time, the message ringtone will be blasting in your ears (you do have the receiver to your ear at the time or your earphones) and that's startling and uncomfortable and not to mention incredibly disrupting. I think in those cases, a nice beep to indicate incoming message would be all it needs.

Things I Wasn't Too Happy About

I'm not sure if it's due to the update or it's just the software in general but in some instances my network reception fluctuates between GPRS, EDGE and 3G even when I'm in close range with a 3G base station. It's odd though because sometimes after restarting the phone, I get decent reception again.
My camera application is not as snappy as it used to be. It would be nice to have the option to disable digital zoom if that is the reason for my lagging camera.

And that wraps up my rather lengthy look into the latest OS for the iPhone specifically on the 3GS. I'll probably do another update post on the iOS 4 on the 3G and iPod Touch 3rd generation.

No More Boredom... Please?

2010-05-24T00:27:00.002+08:00

Was so excited to meet up with an old classmate last Thursday. She was in town for a week on work vacation. Another classmate of ours who works in 1Borneo set up the whole thing which was awesome. It was nice to sit and chat over dinner. Really nice catching up. I was getting my glasses upgraded (new prescriptions) so it worked out pretty well.

Last Friday only myself, one of my brothers and the maid were left home (til Sunday afternoon). I initially thought that it would be great to finally get some peace and quiet around the house and get some overdue things done once and for all.

Wow. Was I wrong. Started out Friday night with a trip to 1Borneo to accompany my brother. Well there wasn't much of the night left when we roamed there (8pm). Anyways, headed home and I spent the entire night catching up on Glee episodes. LOL!! Talk about being "productive".

Side Note: I do love Rachel and Jesse together even though Jesse was there to kinda seduce Rachel under her mum's instructions. He is kinda falling for her and OMG his voice is much better than Finn's and he knows what he wants where as Finn is like the grass in the wind if you catch my drift.

Last Saturday by far was the MOST unproductive day in my entire life. And I was bored to looney-ville. I thought about going out but I had nowhere to go or at least no where I wanted to go. Anyways, was waiting for my BFF to drop by after work that afternoon. I was practically restless. Watched Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2 and Clueless on HBO HD and sometime after that I fell asleep and woke up to Giuliana & Bill on E! (I think).

That night was apparently the final concert for Akademi Fantasia 8 and I basically missed the entire season altogether. LOL!! My mum and I used to follow the show religiously in the past but the appeal has pretty much simmered down and I've personally lost interest. Good thing the maid brought it to my attention that the final concert was gonna be on. I'm impressed with Adira's performance of her song "Ku Ada Kamu" not because she was a Sabahan but because when she sang that song, it gave me a tingly feeling (you know the kind when someone sings a song really well with enough passion and soul). Check out below for the music video for her song and see for yourself.

Adira AF8 - Ku Ada Kamu

Courtesy of perekacerita's YouTube channel

I was tweeting about the concert the entire night and commenting on each performance giving my honest unbiased opinion. I knew Adira would not be crowned the winner but what's important was she gave the best performance that night that it didn't even matter if she came in 1st or 2nd. Anyways, with Shahir's good looks, and a gazillion female voters, it was clearly obvious who would win the votes. I do think that Maulana did a better job than Shahir though. Anyways, you can read my comments from that night on my Twitter.

So yea. That was my Saturday night. Haha. Beyond a doubt boring and I was extremely restless to get out of the house (but didn't). I didn't feel like doing anything else except go out too else I would've been able to do some clearing up or something at home. Geez. I hope I won't be facing that kinda day again ever.

Sunday (today), I got up earlier and got ready to go out. Haha. I'm so weird. Since we were planning to watch Robin Hood at night, I went off to Centre Point to get us tickets. It's always best to get tickets for the night earlier in the day. More seat choices. Anyways, I decided to wear a simple short knit dress (camisole underneath to cover up some cleavage. LOL!) and a matching waisted belt and paired that with a simple faux gold charm bracelet, my dual tone diamante dial Fossil watch and a pair of nude/black peep toe heels (my fave!). I like to not just dress up but play around with make up on Sundays (or on holidays in general) since I don't get a lot of opportunities for that when I'm at work. It just feels weird to be all dolled up at work somehow. Maybe it's cos I work in an engineering/telecommunication based industry? Makes me kinda wished I worked for a fashion or beauty magazine. *sigh* Or maybe I should start one? Now there's a thought. So nothing fancy, I had on BB cream as my foundation, did my brows, lined my upper lashline with a bit of a wing, mascara, coral blush, raspberry lipsticks and warmed my face with a bronzer. Sounds like a lot but it's a simple look really.

Anyways, oddly enough I have no idea why there was this girl walking pass me and she kept staring at me (either it was my waisted belt or my non-flat stomach). Then I also noticed a few other heads turning my way which I find to be rather uncomfortable. I wasn't even decked to the nines or anything like that. Heck, I even kept my hair straight (just used a volumizing mousse to the roots for a bit of lift). After getting the tickets and Yoyo, I headed home. Since I still had time before the airport pick up, I rushed to film a long planned collective haul and product review for my beauty blog. Was planning to use my Canon camera to film but the video function didn't have auto focus which was a bummer. It's great for vlogging though. So I had to use the JVC camcorder which works great and had a flip screen so I could see myself too. I love using the JVC. Problem is it records into .mod files which isn't compatible with most video editing softwares (like Movie Maker, iMovie, Adobe Premier, etc). It's supposed to work with Cyberlink's Power Director but I don't really like using that particular software. After some trial and error in converting the files perfectly with FormatFactory, I managed to get it in .avi which has better compatibility. Gonna be editing the footage soon.

So for Robin Hood, I was surprised that I actually liked it really. I'm not a big fan of Russell Crowe or his works. And wasn't too excited with him being cast as Robin. Fortunately, he did an amazing job as Robin and the movie was a great introduction to how Robin Hood came to be. Somehow every time I think about Robin Hood, I am reminded of the comedy version of it, "Men In Tights". If you've never seen it, I'd seriously suggest that you do. Hilarious.

Oh and yes, my office laptop is finally being switched to a new (actually 2nd hand) one. Bye bye Dell, hello Lenovo. The Lenovo was distributed in the company only a few months back so I have absolutely no idea how it became so disgusting. Or maybe that's just me. I cleaned the monitor, keyboard, chassis (including all the nooks and crannys) and disinfected it with some alcohol that my supervisor says smells like his lecturer's perfume. No the alcohol didn't harm the laptop. Now just to transfer my files and update my Outlook with my Archive folders.

Hopefully tomorrow I get to carry all my stuff from the office in the city to the other office that I'm moving to. I love how I feel my colleagues there are like family. Makes going to work less stressful and me more productive.

Another Weekend?

2010-05-16T11:47:00.000+08:00

I've just realized that I've been doing a lot of weekend summary posts of late. Probably cos I've been super busy on weekdays with work and other mundane home stuff that there's really nothing much to blog about.

Anyways, yesterday was my mum's 100 days day-versary kenduri and we had a little get together. Kids running around the house and the kitchen busy since the night before. Haha. Honestly, I'm not a kitchen person so instead, I busied myself with clearing up the area as much I could considering most of the junk was my stuff. Haha. And I totally slept in last night which was pretty weird considering I hadn't slept in (til 2pm!) in awhile. Don't want to make that a habit.

Well, I'm still adjusting myself to the corporate world and having my every move and work being scrutinized. I find it suffocating and really disturbing really. Personally, I just tend to not perform at my best and my brain shuts down to work when I get put under a microscope. Imagine how germs feel. I admit with all the workload and constant "urgent" things to tend to I've lost a lot of my efficiency making my performance less to be desired for which really stresses me out because I'm a demi-perfectionist and something like this is just unacceptable. I've been thrown a whole lotta "urgent" and "must do right now" matters the past few months that I've come to neglect my filing and actual job. Having to follow up on 1001 things every single day does take a toll on someone. Although I do have a great supervisor who is always open for discussion, somehow I feel that using all this to justify my performance (or rather lack thereof) to be meer excuses so I refrained. Even when I was busy taking care of my mum and having to deal with all the emotional roller coaster last year, I refused to make it as my excuse or justification. As much as it may not "look good" to send emails in the wee hours of the morning (12am-4am), it is pretty much the best time for me to finish my tasks and get my work done. I am and have always been a night owl, never a morning person, and am the most productive in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, I can't even do that apparently. Plus I realized that I feel less productive in my current office than the previous one and therefore I'm moving back there *YAY!!!!!!* soon. Maybe I'll drop by the office later and get my office stuff.

OK so enough rambling about work. I'm getting my office laptop replaced on tomorrow *hurray!!* to a faster Core 2 Duo unit with more RAM and hopefully HDD space. Using a Pentium with a 512K RAM for work to me is just insulting since I love techie stuff. I don't understand how a technology-related company can settle for such subpar devices. My personal laptop is more powerful than that. Insulting. Another one of the things that I've been looking forward to since last year considering my laptop had been so super glitchy for way too long. I need computers that work faster than me to optimize my resources. *haha* Finally had it reformatted earlier this year and it has been working somewhat better 1 in 50 chance of freezing up compared to 1 in 4 previously.

Anyways, I do have trouble sleeping at night and I find 3am or 4am a sutiable time to sleep which doesn't work well with working hours. So needless to say I hardly get enough sleep. And I work til late (sometimes I continue work at home) apart from all the other non-work related matters I have to look into - home, family, friends, personal time - and I'm still struggling with personal emotional issues and balancing everything out. Then there's the ever demanding need and stress of losing weight. Stressing definitely doesn't help with it. The more I think about it, the more I get hungry and require food consumption. There must be a different way to go about this. And better yet a better way for me to fit in time to exercise and make it part of my routine. Maybe I can workout during lunch hours. Hurm...

Well, lunch is served so I think it best to go join the family now. Wee!!!!

A Whole Lotta Weekend...

2010-05-10T00:11:00.000+08:00

Hello rain that falls from the sky. It seems that you have returned during this cool monsoon season.

Yes, it has been raining practically every single day these days. When the sun is out, the air is so humid and feels so scorching hot. Then rain falls and it falls hard. I love rain. Believe me I do. But it doesn't do much for me when I'm out trying to pursue a nice hobby/side project in the daytime at Jesselton Point. With another 4 hours to go, we had to pack up and wrap up the day because it was raining cats and dogs (not literally) and there was no way we could woe in customers nor could we properly display our items. The tents were flooded, and all of us grouped up smack in the centre of this 20x20ft tent salvaging our merchandise from getting even more wet. And we were all hoping for better sales that usually come during the afternoon.

Anyways, I went to the PC Fair today at 1Borneo. Nothing much that was enticing but I did get my brother's webcam (which we can't get to work and only displays a blank black screen), a USB vacuum and a keyboard and mouse for the home PC since it has been a bit glitchy lately. I couldn't remember if we had it on a USB or PS/2 connection (how dumb!) and got the USB ones only to find out when I got home that it had PS/2 connections. Looks like I'll be heading out to get a couple of USB to PS/2 converters. Maybe I should've just gotten the Logitech one I had initially wanted. Darn you salesgirl for making me doubt my confidence in having PS/2 keyboard and mouse. *Ggrrrr* And there wasn't anyone home for me to ask to check and confirm.

I have a personal target to complete at work this month. And I'm determined to complete it. I won't have much time next month finish the task and I'd really like it done by the 1st half of the year. Wish me luck!

Sometimes I wish I had somewhere else to go home to. Sometimes I get exhausted just trying to be chirpy ALL THE TIME. I've always had my mum to balance out my days because whatever problems I face, whatever frustration I have, whatever pressure gets thrown my way, she always knew how to make me feel better. Sometimes it's just being with her, hearing her voice and seeing her smile and the world becomes a better place and all those bad things just float away. That was the magic of my mum. Now I can't find my sunshine. I can't find my pick me up. Whenever something comes my way and brightens my day, another storm rains on my parade. No one can hear my silent screams, my eyes fill with water, my feelings patched with fragile threads. All they can see is my facade, the me they want to see, the me that is expected of me, the me I am assumed to be and don't even bother to look me in the eyes and see what lies there.

I've been undermined, pushed and shoved emotionally, I feel like I'm crumbling. I'm always afraid of saying the wrong things at home. I have to constantly be careful and not speak words that may or may not spark fires. I have to check on my jokes or puns to make sure it doesn't get misinterpreted and misconstrued. I'm wrong when I talk, I'm wrong when I'm silent. Yes people. My life is NOT perfect. I'm just an average girl who summons all her energy each day to get through it and find happiness in the little things. I go places and do things to take my mind away from the parts that sinks my soul until I get reacquainted with them in another bashing episode. And yes, I get tired. I think people forget that. Some people anyway. Sometimes I'm afraid to take a break. I fear that things might get bad and I won't be around to tame it down. Fear, it eats you bit by bit inside until there's none of you left but fear.

Enough of such somber rants. My weekend was an underaccomplishment (is that even a word?).

Like I've said on my Facebook, Happy Mummy's Day to all. And to my mummy, the beautiful woman who shines so bright that her absence has made my world so grim, I love and miss you every single day. Happy Mummy's Day mummy. Al-Fatihah.

Wilting Daisy

2010-05-09T23:32:00.000+08:00

"Send me here,
Send me there,
Pick me up when I tell you,
No, it must be you!"

"Can I borrow your phone?
Can I sleep in your room?
Haven't you heard of sharing?
Something's wrong with you!"

"What's mine is mine,
What's yours is mine too.
Your time is mine,
Don't you dare make plans!"

"You must be stupid,
Why are you picking a fight?
That's just stupid,
Why can't you understand me?"

I can't run away
I have nowhere to go
Only one understood
But now I face it alone.

Whatever said, I must obey
Whenever called, I must come
However tired, I must attend
Don't get a life, just serve and serve.

My spirits dampen, I cannot soar
I live to be crushed and put down
Only good when I'm needed
Yelled at when I say "no".

I feel like pulling my hair out
I'm eating myself up inside
Words I speak bear no meaning
Heard only to be twisted and distorted.

Annoyed, frustrated, pushed to the edge
Still I cannot stand up and fight back
Fear of awakening yet another
One who cannot be controlled.

When I speak, I utter words
My advice only to be dismissed
Only to be used against me
In times to come.

I have no say
All I do is wrong
Why do I still live?
When my soul is clearly shattered.

Image from the bonnie blues Flikr

Be Happy...

2010-05-04T12:14:00.000+08:00

I've honestly never heard of this award so thanks to my cousin Cinda for tagging me.

Tagged by Cinda

http://simplyaboutlife.blogspot.com

10 Things That Make Me Happy:

My mummy - in life and in death she made me truly happy. She was the only one who truly had my best interest at heart and truly understood all of me.
Having a beautiful family - despite their weird way of showing appreciation and love (applicable to some)
Having fantastic friends who look out for me and accept me for the person I am and not the person that other people want me to be.
Knowing that I've been blessed with so many wonderful things and opportunities.
Writing - a therapeutic stress reliever and means of expression (including blogging)
Shopping - any form of shopping is invigorating and exciting to me (i.e. window shopping, online shopping, mall shopping, flea market shopping, catalog shopping, etc.). To not have a budget would also be a dream!!
Technology - the latest innovative gadgets and devices in the market really gets me excited (includes anything from Apple, computers, cameras, softwares, applications, printers, super-fast internet, etc.)
Beauty - I love to see beauty in everything and everyone. I love beauty products (i.e. skincare, cosmetics, fragrances) and enjoy playing (and amassing) with my makeup collection.
Sewing - the idea of creating garments or bags and accessories just makes me happy and proud. I may not have the patience for it but the final product always sends a rush of excitement.
Cupcakes - Haha. Yes. I don't know what it is but cupcakes just exudes happiness don't you think?

I Tag You
*hearts*

Nazim @ http://allaboutnazim.blogspot.com/

Eba @ http://nevad.blogspot.com/

Gegurl @ http://gilakankasut.blogspot.com/

Shima Hunny @ http://serenadingshima.blogspot.com/

Fara @ http://bobidom.blogspot.com/

And since I've been really into YouTube lately,

I'd like to tag the gurus that has always brighten my days

with their videos and blog posts and tweets:
(although they prolly won't pass this on or respond)

Michelle Phan @ http://www.michellephan.com/

Dulce Candy @ http://www.dulcecandy.com/

K.L. Cao @ http://secretlifeofabionerd.blogspot.com/

Jessica @ http://picturesquemakeup.blogspot.com/
Tiffany D @ http://makeupbytiffanyd.blogspot.com/

If you've been tagged, all you've gotta do is:

Copy the award/tag image above and post it on your blog.
Name and link back to the person who sent you the award/tag.
List the 10 things that makes you happy and brightens up your day.
Send the award/tag 10 people who brightens up your day in random order.

Lotsa luv, let's spread the happiness. *smiles*

Beautiful dreams...

2010-05-01T10:00:00.002+08:00

Wow. Just realized that I was starting a post before I got cut off. Only managed to insert the title. LOL! Was wondering why one of the items under 'Edit Post' didn't have an option to view. Hehe.

Fortunately when I saw the post title I still remembered what the post was supposed to be about. I had a beautiful dream a couple nights back. I wish I could have a dream similar to that every night. My mummy was in my dream. It was so nice. I'm pretty 'conscious' when I'm in a dream and I have no need to pinch myself to check if I'm in a dream or in the real world. It was so nice to be with my mummy. To hear her voice, hear her laugh and talk to me, hold her hand and see her smile. At one point in the dream I'd even wanted to record her voice, our conversations so I can hear her voice anytime I wanted. Not that I could export those recordings - if made - out of my dreams. *haha*

It really was nice to be able to see her, and chat with her like we used to. Dreams, my brief moments of happiness.

Image from Jargogled Impressions

Have You Heard of OMG Facts?

2010-04-30T16:51:00.002+08:00

If you're an internet junkie like me, eventually you will hear about OMG Facts which started out as a Twitter account disseminating little known and interesting facts on the network. Now they've also set up a website and recently started a YouTube channel.

So just like the blob fish in my previous post, there are a lot of interesting things out there that we're simply unaware of. At the time of posting this there are 8 videos already uploaded on their channel. Below is a pretty awesome fact they've dug up from way back when:

"Voted #1 April Fools Prank in History" from OMG Facts YouTube channel

The way that BBC did the prank was definitely epic. But then again, at that time, it was pretty easy to fool people. I suppose audiences were more gullible then, huh?

A Wilting Soul...

2010-04-27T22:52:00.001+08:00

Thud!
And my heart skips a beat
Ensued by rapid pumping
For I know what is to come
Is hurtful words and yelling

Crash!
And my body begins to feel weak
A chill runs down my spine
And my joints failing beneath me
If only I were unconscious

My spirit now damaged
Torn beyond repair
No more is my saviour
The one who calms my soul
She who gives me strength

Who I seek is no more here
I feel defeated everyday
A battle lost before begun
Undoubtedly this is not fair
For a chance I do not stand

Once young and full of love
So much untapped potential
One who lived traumatized for many years
Now claims that throne beside the mentor
I have failed, yes, I have

Most times I keep still
Afraid of more abuse
I might not say the right things
I may not say what he wants to hear
But my silence too is penalized

There is no black nor white
Or even gray areas for me
I have no say in anything
My advises no longer heed
Alas what is my means to be?

Image from Inspiration of Lyric

Disclaimers and Other Notes...

2010-04-27T20:38:00.001+08:00

Recently YouTube has implemented FTC (US Federal Trade Commission) Disclaimers to be included in all their member's videos to indicate whether items were purchased or gifted and if there are any monetary compensation given to fellow YouTubers to feature certain products and services on their channel. Disclaimers are no stranger to the internet or any other information disseminating mediums out there. It also works well with the copyright law I think.

So anyways, if you've noticed, I have begun putting disclaimers at the end of certain posts and of course whenever I use images that are not owned or created by me, I will credit the sources as well as put a link to them. I suppose it is only fair that all these items be declared in the post to avoid any future implications (a.k.a. just in case). *hehe*

This here is post #70 and I never imagined actually coming through with blogging. I love to write (or for this matter type) but I never thought that I'd be able to talk about all the things that has led up to my 70th post here in Blogger when I first started some 2 years back. I can't believe it's been (almost) 2 years since my first post! Anyways, I spent some time looking back at some older posts and oddly enough I actually can't believe I wrote all this stuff. My favourite post to date I'd say is my Valentine's Day entry.

On a different note, I'm beginning to wonder what is wrong with the international postal system. Seriously. I don't understand how a parcel/package can get "lost". Is there a Bermuda Triangle of posted items? I've been waiting for my last Sigma brush set (Nice In Pink Travel Kit) which was said to be posted on April 1 and some make up I bought at All Cosmetics Wholesale posted on April 15. Normally even by First Class International Mail, I get my items within 2 weeks. In fact, the sewing machine presser feet I bought online and was posted to me on April 15 (US April 14) via First Class International Mail (i.e. no tracking) already arrived safely last week. A friend of mine too got her brush purchased from Sigma within a week without hitches. Just my luck? Makes me wonder if it's Pos Malaysia that FAILED.

Last night was pretty weird, I was fine and later in the night I began getting stomach cramps for no apparent reason (at least none that I can pinpoint). Lasted through the night (thank goodness I managed to sleep through it) and til today. Forced myself to work in the afternoon still. I hate taking MCs simply because I don't like having to go to the clinic, get meds and have to down antibiotics. Ugh! Plus, I only look sick enough for an MC when I can't even move to go to the clinic. Haha. So the doctor will always look at me like I'm trying to squeeze a fake MC out of him. Ah well. The thing about not being well even momentarily is, the additional work to do and catch up on. C'est la vie.

Apple Love, OS 4.0, MacBook Pro...

2010-04-26T19:12:00.003+08:00

So I was innocently browsing the Apple website recently to check out if there was more info on the upcoming OS 4.0 for the iPhone and iPod Touch and was delighted to find a whole video on the keynote delivered to app developers available on the OS 4.0 info page. *yay!*

Image courtesy of apple.com

I love watching Apple keynote videos. They're just so interesting and captivating. I love how the speakers/presenters (in this case Steve and Scott) have this cool and calm humour attached to their fluid presentations. Now how do I learn to present like that?!?!?!

Icons courtesy of apple.com

So OS 4.0 will be coming our way this summer (circa June-July-August) and I, for one, can't wait! The new OS comes with 100+ new features including the exciting 7 tentpoles presented during the keynote. I'm really excited about a couple features really and those are Multitasking & Folders.

I like the idea of multitasking simply because every time I read my tweets and someone calls, after ending the call, the page goes right back to the top and I have to scroll down to find where I left off. Incredibly annoying to the point that I wish people won't call me. *haha* So with multitasking, the app gets saved into the background and once my call ends I assume it means that I can pick up exactly where I left of on my Echofon. Same goes for when I'm watching YouTube videos on my phone, I have to quit the app to answer a call or if I suddenly have to attend to a text message. So that's something I'm looking forward to. Plus, you can continue to stream music even when you exit an app cos it's running in the background. How cool is that. No more being stuck in an app just to listen to a song. Woohoo!

Another cool new feature *IMO* is the ability to create folders. I love how easy it is to create folders (drag & drop!!!) on the screens and being an organizing freak, this feature is a dream! I use to categorize my apps on different pages for each different categories (i.e. Games, Camera/Photo apps, Fitness & Health apps, etc). The new interface for folders looks awesome as well.

They are also enhancing the mail feature with unified mailboxes, the ability to have 2 MS Exchange accounts and (love!) message threading. Message threading will absolutely make it easier to follow the entire thread of events leading to the latest e-mail. It's kinda like GMail in a sense. Which means that it would work so much better with GMail since that feature to me is one of the reasons I love using GMail in the first place.

They're also implementing iBookstore (from iPad) in the upcoming release. This is excellent for all the readers out there. Directly purchase e-books (or iBooks) from the store and read it instantaneously. I might not even need to go buy physical books anymore to satisfy my reading urges. And it syncs with the iPad version if you own both gadgets.

Honestly, even the iAd idea looks super cool. (And they were only using mock ads for the demo!) Apple designs are simply genius!! I don't care if they're super secretive or egoistic, the devices are top of the line excellent. Plus, the new OS allows users to change the home screen background too!

To my excitement, the new MacBook Pros are out as well! *floating*

Image courtesy of apple.com

I've been meaning to get my hands on the 13" model for a while now ever since getting my iPhone. Apple is so addictive. Especially for someone who appreciates awesome gadgets and devices like me. I love computers and gadgets. *Can you tell?* The gorgeous aluminium unibody enclosure, simple keyboard and sleek yet elegant design, I'm in love.

The new 13" has an estimated battery life of 10 hours (eat your heart out Timeline) with adaptive charging technologies and should have a life span of about 5 years. Mac computers have always been well known for their graphic quality and with the latest NVIDIA graphic drivers (320M on 13" and 330M on 15" & 17") the display output for photos and videos is incredible! Of course the LED backlit displays works wonders complemented by the driver. Isn't the illuminated keyboard just genius? I know it's a bad habit, but I like using my laptops in the dark. Fortunately I'm pretty good with typing without looking at the keyboard (been using computers since the DOS era or was it Mackintosh) so despite dim lighting (or no lights) I can still type decently. Haha. And of course the no button multi-touch trackpad (introduce in last year's model).

My only disappointment with the 2010 model is it still runs on Intel Core 2 Duo instead of the i3 (or i5 I don't mind *wink*) where as the 15" & 17" both now runs on i5 & i7 respectively. But then again, 2.66GHz on 4GB DDR3 RAM, 320GB HDD (can be upgraded to SSDs from RM900+ onwards) is pretty decent. So I'm likely to not wait for them to get it up to i3 before buying it. And it supports up to WiFi 802.11n which means I won't be fighting for the WiFi at home since everyone else is using the 802.11g protocol. Woohoo!! Anyways, I won't be doing any heavy video rendering with Final Cut Pro or crazy photo editing with Aperture (just watched some vids on the Apple website and I sooo want this software) or anything like that. I'm not even an avid gamer (plus there's the Wii & XBox for that). The 13" is so perfect for me.

Image from apple.com

So why do I want a MacBook Pro so bad? Besides the simple yet powerful interface which is in line with my personality oddly enough, I am dying to use the iLife suite that comes pre-installed. I can make my own tracks with GarageBand, edit videos with iMovie (OMG this piece of software is AMAZING!) and play around with iWeb (though not compatible with Blogger. :( ) which answers my many questions on how a lot of sites seem to look so chic effortlessly. The clear difference between WMM (Windows Movie Maker) and iMovie is how easy it is to just take parts of a video recording and drop it in the timeline. So easy. Putting picture in picture (or video in video) - not available in WMM - , titles and subtitles are nice and adding music is simple. In WMM, I have to keep splitting the video to edit out all the parts that needed to be omitted from the final product and the titles and subtitles can be a chore.

Image from apple.com

Now do I want to opt in and buy iWork too? MS Office is RM500+ while the iWork suite is about half that. I'd download OpenOffice but I just don't like their interface somehow. Haha.

Question of the day: To iWork or not to iWork. LOL!

DISCLAIMER:
All images used for this post are from the Apple website. I do not own these images and do not claim to own them. I am not affiliated/associated with Apple nor am I receiving any form of compensation for using the images and discussing Apple products in this post. All comments are of my own thoughts and opinions. Images are used for display and illustration purposes only.