Cum Cum Cum! over ME!!!

How to ring in 2011 Part 8 - Learn to check your receipts

2011-02-15T07:06:00.000-08:00

Even if it's for something as petty as 6 dollar comic books.

Just so there are no confusions amongst non-geeks who traverse upon my blog, that white board you see, is just that. A white piece of cardboard. They're to keep your comics from bending and getting out of shape. Apparently every time they ask me,

"Do you want a board for your comic book?"

And I say,

"Yes please! :)"

I give them license to charge me an extra 30 cents.

I mean, I have been reading comic books a long time, usually online or borrowing from others. But only starting some time last year I started to collect them myself. And I usually bought collected volumes of comics.

For my readers who don't do geek-speak (and most of you probably don't) let me shed some light. A collected volume or compilation as I prefer to call it, is one book consisting of a number of single issues put together. For example, Red Robin: The Grail...

...is a compilation of Red Robin issues #1 to #5.

These collected issues were good for me because it allowed me to catch up on arcs that I missed, and they are also cheaper than getting a whole bunch of single issues (Red Robin: The Grail is SGD27, a single issue of Red Robin is SGD6, you do the math).

I bought single issues less, and only for certain series, like Batman, Superman, Superboy, Batman & Robin. I really didn't know they charged me 30 cents for each board I got with each comic book. I always assumed they were free!

They always ask me,

"Do you want a board with your comic book?"

Not,

"Do you want a board with your comic book? They're 30 cents each."

I mean...if I were the salesperson, and I saw a ~~cute~~ girl walk into the store, I would automatically assume that she's not much of a geek as, say, a guy customer, and wouldn't know better. Trust me, when I'm in the local comic stores, the girls I usually see come in there are girls who come in because they're following their boyfriends in.

I don't mean to be sexist, but let's be honest, geek-girls are already hard to come by, what about geek-girls in our part of the world? And I mean, in Malaysia/Singapore/South-East Asia where the manga or anime fanbases usually monopolize, especially if you compared it to the American comic-reading community.

Anyway back to the matter at hand, the assumption should be right, because here I am, a girl just getting into collecting comics, and I think the salesperson should at least let me know that they charge for the boards right? Right?

Or, I should've checked my receipts those times. Anyways, I usually keep my comic books in a box anyway (that's like too full it can barely close, and I need to get a new one) so I don't have to worry about them getting bent out of shape. I'm not getting the boards next time.

I feel I have just leveled-up. I just...got a little geekier. Probably why I don't have a boyfriend. Maybe if I flew to America, became an amateur freelance comic book artist and stayed in my aunt Ping's garage, make some money, go roadtripping, then I'd find a boyfriend. Or not. Not everyone's a Kristen Bell in Fanboys.

Yeah...we geek-girls have our work cut out for us.

How to ring in 2011 Part 7 - Buy tickets to your first concert of the year.

2011-01-20T09:04:00.000-08:00

And it's an indie rock festival to boot. My first and the last rock festival I went to was Soundwave 2009, and it was awesome. So so looking forward to this. Especially to see The Temper Trap, Ladyhawke and Foals. This will be the first time I have Jacqkie over to Singapore to join in the fun, and this will be the first concert we go to together.

Here are our tickets. I hope there's a merch stand. If this is anything like the rock festivals they have in Western countries, there better be a merch stand.

How to ring in 2011 Part 6 - Fall in love with colors

2011-01-18T02:33:00.000-08:00

I used to be this person who worshipped the color black. Not that I didn't acknowledge other colors, I just always loved black. I was in that phase where black was cool, and so was any other dark color. I would always paint my nails dark red or brown or black, and I would only buy clothes in earthy and gray colors. Since high school, I went from punk rock to goth rock to beatnik.

And since late last year, I have a new found appreciation for colors. All sorts, and all meshed together. I would buy clothes with different splotches of colors and different patterns on them. And Tumblr is helping fuel this new love. I found all this color crap on Tumblr, and I am loving every one.

This is a picture of dancer actress Lexy Hulme aka Paintyhands and her friends in costume for a video shoot.

The Dainty Squid's Kaylah made rainbow cupcakes with soft pastel colors. I think it was sometime a couple of months ago that I started to get into colors and I asked Denise to make me space cake for my hippie birthday party, and she did.

Only with the rainbows, but without the marijuana.

Found this on fuckyeahcupcakes. Talk about psychedelia. These cupcakes are on drugs.

Photography by essexdiver. Can I have ~~all~~ one of these?

This is gorgeous art and photography by Elias Wessel. So psychedelic, so bold.

Photo by Laura Madeline of an awesome colorful yarn-crocheted hat. This will not help my obsession with colorful yarn-crocheted hats.

See? I buy colorful clothes now, and I like contrasts that make other colors stand out.

In fact, the first thing I'm going to do if I land a giant load of money miraculously, is go to Desigual and buy any one of their dresses, and go to Fossil and buy one of their vintage Maya Patch bags.

Call me a hipster, but I also love watching videos of indie bands because they are so cute with colors!

What You Know by Two Door Cinema Club. This was an adorable video with loads of soft pastel color and loads of contrast between the white space and blacks the band was wearing.

Don't Look Back, one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands, She & Him's Volume 2 album, with the lovely Zooey Deschanel herself in this screencap.

This was the video that first got me into Feist. The song is 1234. Look at those colors!

This was an ad I always saw on Aussie TV back when I was in Adelaide. It was a Target ad, used lovely stop-motion animation, and the theme was "Every Colour You Can Dream Of". Song is Everyone and Everything by The Boys and Girls. It's uber cute.

Even the comics I normally read nowadays, instead of the usual black and white Japanese manga I used to read back in the day, are now American superhero comics that, you gotcha, come in glorified color baby. I mean I was always into American superhero comics, but I think my obsession hit an all-new high. I think the colors of their awesome costumes might have something to do with it.

Yes, the trio from Young Justice are well aware that they are a very colorful bunch. Art from here.

Though my favorite 'superhero' is still the goddamned very dark Batman, I'm quite happy with the fact that his current and past wards (for those of you who don't know the comics, the 5 people who have taken the Robin identity) prance around in a wide array of colors, blue for Nightwing, red for the Red Hood and the Red Robin, purple for the Batgirl, and green, red and yellow for the current Robin.

Not to say Japanese manga characters are not colorful, but I guess preferences change and colorful spandex over ripped torsos and biceps seem to appeal to me more now.

And guess what I woke up to this morning. On the table on which I usually have my breakfast of cereal and juice, I found a note Mom left on a jar.

And inside the jar was a variant packet of my favorite candy that Mom brought back from Florida.

I nearly died trying to "go easy".

How to ring in 2011 Part 5 - Stop working and take a breather & find your long-lost artistic side

2011-01-12T19:51:00.000-08:00

I didn't quit or get fired, my temp contract just came to an end. I didn't feel like extending it because I feel like...IDA's not what's right for me. I'd like to work somewhere more creative, somewhere younger, somewhere more fun.

Yeah good luck Audrey Chan.

For now I'm just bumming around at home looking for a new job. I've had more time to work on my art and I've been catching up on sleep. I also have been going out and doing my New Year shopping, though I have not bought nearly enough (I have been spending an unreasonable amount of money on comic books though).

I've been mostly very lazy and would love to muck around with some friends. But most of my friends are working at the time of day at which I'm usually bored.

Ah a nice glass of teh tarik with friends. What I miss a lot these days. They just don't make them the same here.

I did cook dinner one night. Mom's away to Florida on business and I figured this was the perfect chance for me to cook (she doesn't really like me near the kitchen stove). Ash loves pasta, we had leftover sauce so I thought what the heck, time to whip up the easiest plate of pasta ever. Bought some extra virgin olive oil, minced beef, carrots, canned button mushrooms and some white button mushrooms.

Stuff in pasta sauce:

Browned beef mince
Sliced brown button mushrooms (the typical canned kind)
Chopped carrots (pre-fried)
LOTS of basil

The white button mushrooms were used for baked mushrooms. I drizzled them with olive oil and basil and popped them into the oven at about 150 degrees for 15 minutes. They come out nice, fragrant and soft brown.

I'm going to cook again this weekend, probably will make chicken stew.

But mostly it's the art I'm really happy about. I haven't had the time or a long enough attention span to sit through and finish any artwork lately. And I'm glad that now I am finally working on a few things, with progress.

Here's one of my works-in-progress. I really have a good feeling about this one.

I'd better have my cereal brunch so I can head out to do some shopping later. Toodle-oo.

How to ring in 2011 Part 4 - Know the OTHER co-founder of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin

2011-01-07T07:23:00.000-08:00

This is about the weirdest thing that's happened to me in my 21 years of existing and occupying your oxygen.

Couple of months ago, I was invited by a friend to a company private screening of The Social Network, the movie based on the book The Accidental Billionaires, which is the origin-story of Facebook and the feud between its two co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin. I loved both the movie and the book, and I don't care if what the book/movie says is true, or if Mark says it's all bullshit, I enjoyed it on the account of it being a great and well-written movie. Thank you, Sorkin. I liked all the actors, and all the characters in the movie, regardless of who's an asshole and who's not, but I particularly liked Eduardo more than the rest. Mostly because he was the kicked puppy of the movie, and because he was played by the very cute very squishy future-Spiderman Andrew Garfield.

Jacqkie really likes ~~Andrew Garfield (corrected, that's just me)~~ Eduardo too. So, yeah, after the movie premiered here in Singapore, news got out that Eduardo Saverin is here in Singapore, funding Singaporean Facebook game developers with the moolah he got from the Facebook case.

So my life went on as usual. This was the last week of my 8-month stint as a temp project coordinator/corporate and marketing communications executive in the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. I literally packed up my stuff like 8 hours ago. But enough about me and my big step in advancing my career and turning an important page in the book of my life! Let's talk about EDUARDO SAVERIN.

At a meeting earlier this week (that I found out later I need not had sat in for), I was trying my hardest to pay attention, until my boss mentioned that our CEO had recently met with Eduardo himself. She even mentioned (or joked, I don't know, my attention span for the moment couldn't really tell) that the company should invite him to speak at one of our future events.

After the meeting, I tweeted about it.

I should get a reward for being so honest in public.

Apparently Mr Saverin is quite the party animal, and goes to a lot of Singaporean hot-spots, especially The Butter Factory in One Fullerton. I haven't been there, cos' though I used to party a lot back in Malaysia, getting a job made me boring. Also, I think Australia made me lazy, cos' now I'd rather drink beer at a pub with friends rather than do something energizing and exercising, like dance on a podium.

@sarahcuda is Sarah Lacy, author and journalist at TechCrunch and BusinessWeek. I have actually seen her in person at a casual networking event at Hackerspace in Singapore (a subsidiary of my company invited her to Singapore to gauge the entrepreneur environment in the country). I didn't speak to her, partly because I'm a loser, and partly because I was being floored by two business partners, this one Canadian guy and this one German guy thinking, since I was from IDA, I would potentially fund their new business. They also told me that I looked Spanish. Polynesian maybe, Filipino I'll take it, but Spanish?! Really!?

But my colleague did get to take a photo with Sarah, she was quite excited about getting to meet her.

Now here's us. Can I look anymore Chinese? Spanish indeed!

Sarah must've found out through her endeavors in Singapore that Eduardo was laying low in Singapore, and after posting it on TechCrunch, the news jumped all over it.

Then the weird happened.

Ben Mezrich, author of The Accidental Billionaires actually tweet-replied our conversation. I, being the spaz I am, got excited of course. After all, I read his book, and found it quite enjoyable. It's actually the first book in two years that I managed to finish. I'm telling you, it's just my attention span.

Plus, I come from Malaysia. God knows how much we're deprived of celebrity and international attention. There's a word for people like us me, and it's jakun. Wiki it if you'd like.

Behold, the art of kissing ass. Kidding, I did enjoy the book much.

I thought his response was really cute, like..."PSSSSHHHH as if it were that easy!"

This afternoon before clearing all the stuff off my desk, I checked my Yahoo email, and there was this email from this Brazillian dude claiming he's a journalist. I thought it was spam, since people get emails like this all the time, like "RELATIVE IN UGANDA DYING, SEEKING SOMEONE TO CLAIM INHERITANCE".

But then what caught my attention was Eduardo Saverin's name in the email subject. And Eduardo is of Brazillian lineage. Okay so it's not spam. Click!

I sat there at my desk stoning at the computer screen for a good 10 minutes. A journalist wants to interview Eduardo Saverin, and thinks that I, me, moi, Audrey "just-adequate human being" Chan is acquainted with him and knows how to contact him. I didn't know if I should laugh or scoff.

I am sorry if I tricked you readers with my deceiving blog-title. Obviously I do not know Eduardo Saverin, have never met him, and most certainly do not have his phone number and email address. I'd not be so much of a loser if I did. It's just that Mr Brazillian journalist here assumed that I know him, and I felt quite excited to be assumed that for a moment.

Anyway I wrote Mr Brazil a very polite reply.

I hope it clears up the misunderstanding, and I hope he manages to get to Eduardo. It was nice that he tried. So here's me, being a somebody. At least someone thought something of me, and I think Mezrich knows I'm a fan so it's all good.

Mr Saverin sir, if you happen to be reading this, a Brazillian journalist wants to talk to you. I have his details, send me an email at the address above if you think this is not a prank and are taking this seriously ~~and also if you want to go out to dinner some time~~.

How to ring in 2011 Part 3 - New Young Justice trailer

2011-01-05T07:41:00.000-08:00

How did I miss this?

Just when I was complaining for Young Justice to start in my last blogpost, I find these babies.

Just watching the pilot episode on Youtube gave me a lady boner, wait til the whole series starts to air.

Thank you 2011. Thank you Cartoon Network. Thank you for being so goddamned gorgeous Kon-el/Conner Kent/Superboy (though still not as goddamned gorgeous as the goddamned Batman himself). 2011 is going to be an awesome year.

To quote Kid Flash in the first episode,

"I'm liking ~~this gig more every minute~~ January already."

Also seeing Conner in these trailers just make me think of one thing.

SUPERBOY SMAAASSSSHHHHH!!!

How to ring in 2011 Part 2 - Major hang-age with friends and a New Year barbecue

2011-01-02T09:52:00.000-08:00

So I got close-to-a ten day-break from work last week, clearing my leaves and all. I've been doing some major hang-age with close friends up to New Year's itself.

Overrated Chinese dessert at Snowflake with the two remaining members of our little brat pack Sweei and Kerry, while the others are ambiguously M.I.A.

Then hang-age and geek-age with my male manifestation Tim. I love you man. By the way, Boost in Malaysia tastes better and truer to the original than Boost in Singapore. Boost Malaysia has the KING WILLIAM CHOCOLATE not the chocolate-banana. What the hell, Singapore, that's a suck point for you.

And then rung in the New Year with awesome food and awesome friends; the two ingredients to a happy-cake fit for a fat king. This barbecue was the brainchild of Jacqkie, Kent and I, we invited close friends and made new friends. The countdown was possibly the most boring and lamest countdown ever, as I think being the kind of people we are, another year's just another year, so we just counted along to some deejay on the radio. I guess we were, y'know, trying to play it cool and all, that's how we roll. And being the kind of people we are, we didn't expect to see fireworks because Jacqkie's suburb is pretty covered up. Thank you Hilton PJ for the surprise. Then, we played Taboo. Time-limit-induced panic and flurry of sexual innuendo commence!

And I'm glad I wasn't the only nerd present at the barbie. Brian, after being equally ambiguously M.I.A. showed up, I missed this guy. And his T-shirt and him asking if I've seen the trailers for the new Arkham games and DC Universe Online reminded me just why.

And no, we did not coordinate our outfits.

Speaking of DC and the New Year.

CAN YOUNG JUSTICE PREMIER ALREADY PLEEEEAAAAASSSSEEEEE??? A teaser episode is not enough to ail this ~~want~~ need!! Oh dear lord Superboy.

How to ring in 2011 Part 1 - Get a new haircut, get film for your new toys

2010-12-29T05:45:00.001-08:00

Voilà mesdames et messieurs.

I've been wanting to try curls for a long time now. I was just too chicken to do it. Until now. I actually wanted really loose curls with the bangs I got for new year's 2010, like Zooey Deschanel or Florence Welch. I was a bit shocked when I did it as it was much curlier than I expected it, but like most manmade curls, they will eventually loosen up, so I stuck with it.

And I believe, looking through all the photos I took this whole year, that I was probably one of the very few girls on this side of the planet who still had what resembled an 80s hairstyle. I've had people who are close to the family tell me that when they see my face or think of me, they think "BIG HAIR."

Feathered hair is cool okay? Like my fringe.

So what did I opt for? I decided to go and do something to my hair to make myself look older. Or at least more retro. My dad says I look like I have "class" now. But I do like my new hair. I was in a state of shock for a bit when I first got the hairstyle, but it's starting to grow on me now. I like how when I gather my hair in a fist, as if to tie it or clip it, it feels like a giant fuzzy ball of frizz. It's a wonderful feeling! Of course I still aim for it to look like Zooey or Florence's hair when it gets longer, but for now, I have fluffy gypsy hair!

And when I just got my haircut, I decided to push it behind my shoulders and do this to show my cosplay friends.

Yeah this is about as close as I get to looking as gorgeous as Marion Cotillard.

Speaking of my dad, I'm not an avid photographer, but I do like making sure my photos turn out nice when I take them (I use a Canon Digital Ixus 8015). I think photography is a cool hobby though I may not be into it myself.

This 2011, I was thinking of either investing in a new camera just to get into photography. I was thinking of either a vintage Polaroid one600 or a Nikon D90, though I prefer the former since I'm not really into professional photography yet, and I like vintage photography more. I even started using the instagr.am photo app on my iPhone just to emulate the look and feel of vintage photos: lomo, polaroids, etc.

Getting back to Dad, I brought up the topic of my childhood friends Sue and Carmen collecting vintage and antique cameras, over dinner tonight. Not sure what Carmen has since she's currently in Aberstwyth studying, but I just saw Sue's cameras yesterday night when we were over at her place. I believe Sue has a Diana F Lomo camera, a Nikon FE SLR and a Polaroid SX-70, and she ordered them online.

Mom was like, "Psssshhhhh, when your dad was younger, he used to spend so much money on his photography!"
...and Dad was like,

"I think my old cameras are upstairs."

I was like, "REALLY?! We've had antique cameras in this house the whole time and I had no idea?!" After finishing up dinner, he went upstairs to his room to fetch them.

And voilà again. Dad has an old Pentax Espio 738G zoom camera and a Nikon EM SLR, much like the FE Sue ordered online. Apparently they still work!

Thanks Dad! I'm going to learn how to use these babies, and have so much fun! And I just realized that I have a very very Farrah Fawcett-esque look in the photo of me playing with the Pentax. Great job Audrey, you just went from the 80s to the 70s. Way to keep up with the times.

In the garage, I feel safe, no one cares about my ways

2010-12-26T21:34:00.000-08:00

So this is a post about my room. I'm sorry. I know I should not waste your time, but to be a consistent blogger I assume I have to consistently blog.

I don't have the time to update lots, so I'm just going to put up little random posts.

That day on Facebook, I posted up a picture of me in the Switchfoot shirt Tim got me at their Melbourne show (thank you Tim, I love it so so much!).

And then I got a comment from this guy I used to go to primary school with, saying that,

"...the background looks like an office. Camwhoring at work?"

First of all, it looks like an office? I was like, "Dude, that's my room!"

So without further ado, welcome to my room. Or at least welcome to a picture of what my room looks like. That there behind my head is my wardrobe, where I keep all my clothes and stuff, plastered with random photos of me, my family and my friends and our endeavours, and cutouts from random magazines. I also call this my Giant Girl Crush shrine. Purple for effect. Pictures of girl crushes include Natalie Portman, Marion Cotillard, Zooey Deschanel, Emma Stone and Audrey Hepburn.

That guy who made that comment later made another stating that my Audrey Hepburn poster looked scary and that he wouldn't be able to sleep with her staring at him. The comment also implied that he had no idea who she was. Naturally, I was appalled.

So that was taken from one angle, let's have a look at what my room looks from the opposite angle.

Okay I'm sorry you can't see much, obviously when I took this picture my room wasn't the focus. I was just taking this picture to submit to HotChicksInBatmanShirts on Tumblr, but I guess I didn't make the cut. Oh well.

This was just the only picture I could get of my Nerd wall. And it's pretty good coverage since you can see most of the big players: my V for Vendetta poster, my Kick Ass poster, and my Dark Knight poster. This is what my wall currently looks like, as it's gone through a whole load of changes since I moved to Singapore and settled into my room for the first time. This wall is usually made of movie posters, some anime stuff and postcards I collect (I am an avid free postcard collector. I have over 100 cards, not including the ones on the wall, stashed in a box somewhere).

I also have a gigantic Paramore poster put up where you can't see, I bought it at their concert in Singapore earlier this year. I'm still pretty upset about them breaking up. If you didn't know about it earlier, here's a pie, congratulations for finally moving out of under that rock, and welcome to the neighborhood.

O--kaaaay, this post was pretty gratuitous. Goodnight everybody!

The first day of Christmas

2010-12-25T00:03:00.000-08:00

I never expect Christmas gifts every year because my family doesn't celebrate it, I just am always in the mood for it, you know, in the spirit. But thanks to my lovely colleagues for giving me some lovely surprise gifts. :)

Merry Christmas everyone.

I am listening to the clock go ticking, I am waiting as the time goes by

2010-12-22T09:38:00.000-08:00

A year ago, around this time.

Here's to making 2010 a good one, no matter where we are.

Beautiful, what's your hurry?

2010-12-15T22:24:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again. That time of year when I scavenge the Internet for Christmas music. I have a few all-time favorites that remain in the playlist every year, such as Olivia Olson's cover of All I Want For Christmas Is You, an acapella O Holy Night by N'Sync, Andy Williams' It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, and so on and so forth, but every year I search for renditions that I have never heard before, and might possibly make my all-time favorites list.

This year I joined Tumblr, and it really is a sturdy part of my life now. And what I found on Tumblr for Christmas this year are two lovely covers by the lovely Zooey Deschanel.

The first is Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas that Zooey covered with M. Ward, who is the other half of her band She & Him. I have been a big fan of She & Him after hearing their music in promotions of the movie (500) Days of Summer, and even ordered their Volume 2 CD online. I started to follow the She & Him fan-Tumble-log, sheandhim.tumblr.com and they occasionally post up exclusive mp3 downloads of songs performed by the band you won't hear on their albums. And Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas is one of them.

Click here for the download.

Another song, Baby It's Cold Outside, is one of my favorite Christmas songs (though there's hardly any implication of it having anything to do with Christmas). Why I particularly like this 'Christmas' song so much compared to others is because its tendency to be covered in an old-school bluesy jazzy style, because that's just the nature of the song.

One day, while lurking about on Tumblr, I stumbled upon the video of the Glee renditon, by Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Blaine (Darren Criss) for the Christmas episode for the second season. And it's so pleasant. Chris's voice is perfect for this song.

THEN this morning, sheandhim.tumblr.com made my day by posting an mp3 download to a cover, not by She & Him, but by Zooey Deschanel featuring jazz/ragtime artist Leon Redbone. And it is equally pleasant! Usually Zooey's low alto voice is evened out by Matt's higher softer-almost-a-whisper voice in She & Him's music, but Leon's even lower baritone voice greatly compliments her voice!

You might remember a very blonde Zooey in one of her older screen appearances as a disgruntled store salesperson in the movie Elf, also singing this song in the shower (unknowingly dueting with Will Ferrel).

Click here to download!

I hope I left you readers with an extra song for your Christmas playlist this holiday season...or at least introduced you to a great band.

Filmography 2010

2010-12-14T18:23:00.000-08:00

This is possibly the most brilliant remixed video I've seen on Youtube so far. Saw this on the Tumblr's of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nathan Johnson, Jared Geller and Ryan Mackfall. If so many film guys like it, you know this shit's going to be good. What better way to show your love for film and filmography, your appreciation for what Hollywood served us this 2010, and your own film-making prowess, than by putting together a giant-ass video made up of clips from 270 films from the past year. I bring you Filmography 2010 by Genrocks.

This isn't just a collage of clips, this is a short-film by itself, about the different ideas, the different genres, the different kinds of movies of our generation. Smooth transitions, flow in between dialogue, video and audio harmony and ambience, everything in this video reminds me, just why I fucking love film.

And it also reminds me, I need to get Rooney's Eureka album.

To happy days

2010-12-12T10:46:00.000-08:00

You know the lanterns Rapunzel wanted to leave her tower so badly to see?

"You mean the lantern thing they do for the princess?"

I found out from a source on Tumblr that Thailand lights thousands of those babies in the sky on New Year's Eve. Disney must've gotten some of their inspiration from this particular tradition for Tangled.

Recently, Jacqkie went on the Nuffnang company cruise to Phuket and Singapore. She and the Nuffies launched lanterns into the sky as well, in Phuket I assume.

Then she tagged me in these two photos on Facebook, probably because ~~she's my best friend~~ I was the biggest Rapunzel fan she knew. And the comments went a little something like this.

"I hope this was for me. >:|"
"Haha I wished for 'happy days'!"
"With me? >:|"

I hope she wasn't wishing for the TV show. To happy days.

If you could be a Superhero for a day, who would you be?

2010-12-09T08:27:00.000-08:00

Hello.

Other than major hang-age with some awesome people, watching Tangled like three times, writing my third movie review and buying a new cardi, I've been pretty darn good. How are you guys?

So I told you guys I was gonna dress up for Halloween am I right?

In contrast to this post, with a picture in which I was dressed as Audrey Hepburn/Holly Golightly and Jacqkie was dressed as Lady GaGa, here's what we dressed up as for Halloween this year.

Along with the super-sexy Goth-girl Yuen, I was SuperGirl (the Linda Danvers version) and Jacqkie was Wonder Woman!

Jacqkie and I were keeping our costumes from each other the whole time before the party. We were so stoked when we found out we were both going as DC super heroines! Then Jacqkie said this:

"Are Wonder Woman and SuperGirl best friends?"

I love you too Jacqkie.

So Linda Danvers looks like this yeah?

What I did, was got a plain white T-shirt from Cotton On, cut off the sleeves and half of the bottom, and hemmed it as neatly as I could, and drew the Superman logo on it. How I did this was I broke the logo down in grids so I knew how much of what went where. Use a long ruler to help you.

I then broke out the fabric paints (and some leftover 3D-Liner I used to paint my Yoko boots) and started to color the logo and the hem of the bottom and sleeves of the shirt. Used a sharp tapered paintbrush for this.

Tada!! And then the cape! I just bought half a meter of red cloth and snipped it in half. :)

And I put on a red hairband and a black skirt and voila! Now you can be Super Girl too! I wanted to complete the costumes with the gloves and the red boots, but we were indoors and the gloves were making my hands sweat.

So if you could be a superhero for a day (and that day is Halloween), who would you be?

Did nothing much this weekend. Just revisited my childhood, that's all.

2010-11-28T09:39:00.001-08:00

I did what a lot of people think should not be done before watching a movie. And that was immersing myself in almost every bit of information, plot rumors, teaser and preview videos, interviews and behind-the-scenes info. You know how when someone builds up a movie in their head, and gets so stoked over it, they end up getting disappointed because the movie turns out not as good as they thought it would be?

It did not happen. I was thoroughly satisfied. Impressed. I left the theater ten times as happy and excited than I was when I was entering the theater.

Disney, I'm glad you're back.

I'm going to watch it a few more times before I can officially get it out of my system.

David Choi in Singapore Part 1

2010-11-26T09:19:00.000-08:00

Song used:

Pastel Toori by DEPAPEPE meets Honey & Clover

I know this should have gone up a long time ago (like, AUGUST) but yeah I wasn't very much in the mood for videos lately. Anyhoo, David Choi in Singapore. He was a great performer live, and so simple and modest.

This was for one of David's Timbre shows, on the 18th of August. Before the show started, Marcus and I stood near the kitchen cos' it was about the only space we could get (since we arrived quite late). Marc had gone to the bar to get drinks, and he left me minding the spot, when David came out of the kitchen to go on stage. He was friendly to everyone standing in the pathway and when he passed me, he had said "Hi!"

I was like..."Hi!" with the most awkward smile I can ever imagine myself giving anyone. He caught me totally by surprise. I was just minding the spot and my own business while Marc got the booze. Good job, Ms Social Creature.

Also my first time at Timbre @ Substation. I have only been to Timbre @ The Arts House by Boat Quay when David (Cai, not Choi), Pei Jen and I went there to drink to Dave's last week at work. I preferred Substation over The Arts House cos' it was smaller, cosier and homier.

Anyway more updates from me soon. Later days!

The Dainty Squid loves colors (Giveaway post!)

2010-11-22T04:32:00.000-08:00

I started following The Dainty Squid on Blogger and Tumblr not long ago, and I'm already loving Kaylah and her blog.

What I love about Kaylah's blog:

Her photography
Her love for art, vintage and antiquity
Her endeavors at cooking lots of cute-looking foods
Updates from her shop
Her cats
The links to great fashion and art websites she recommends
Her fashion sense and her awesome hair colors and styles! She's a real-life Ramona Flowers!
Her fantastic giveaways! (mostly sponsored by other great vendors!)

And now The Dainty Squid is hosting another giveaway. You could win a pair of microfiber tights and a pair of socks, in any color you want, from We Love Colors. Here's an excerpt from The Dainty Squid about these lovely tights.

"We Love Colors is a unique clothing company founded in 2003 as a family-run business. They offer the best selection of colors in tights, leggings, fishnets, socks and dancewear, and more! They have items for women, children, and men from kids to plus sizes. We Love Colors is currently offering over 50 solid colors and 13 hand dyed splash colors."

"My first thoughts upon opening the package were "these are so soft!" They are the coziest tights that I have ever worn, they're not stiff or too tight. (obviously, I always buy the right size, but sometimes even though you buy the right weight category they just don't fit tight). They're thick without being heavy, or too warm. In short, they are cozy!"

"I wore the purple ones out first, with the socks! I felt like a super hero, it was wonderful. Despite a kitty jumping up on my lap (thanks ray ray) they didn't snag. I obviously wouldn't wear them around the house all the time for fear of the kitties eventually ripping them but I was very happy that they stood up to kitten claws, that's a first for all the tights I've ever worn."

These tights sound amazing. And they come in an amazing variety of colors.

Okay so you won't be able to win the ones in the picture above, but the tights you will be winning are still equally good, and you are free to choose whatever color you want from the palette given by We Love Colors.

And that's a good 51 colors!

If you're interested, click on the picture below to go to The Dainty Squid's We Love Colors' Giveaway.

I myself have put in an entry, and I hope to win a pair for myself.

I've only ever worn black tights because I've never been very adventurous with tights.

I'm physically, very Asian, and I don't want to end up standing out too much by looking like a gyaru off the streets of Tokyo, or one of the Ah Lians that we see so often in Sungei Wang or Berjaya Times Square. I know my fear is irrational, but it has become a personal preference.

But now I think I'll try and be a little more daring, and I need some more color in my wardrobe. And I'm pretty sure, with the right clothes I can pull the tights off. I'm aiming for the maroon.

Please give your support to The Dainty Squid and We Love Colors!

All those days, watching from the windows, all those years, outside looking in.

2010-11-16T09:16:00.000-08:00

I haven't been this stoked for an animated movie in a very very long time.

I am so so so excited for this film! I know Walt Disney Animation hasn't been getting much of the limelight recently because they're constantly being overshadowed by many big animation studios like Dreamworks Animation and Disney's own Disney Pixar. And I am glad that Tangled will be the 50th Walt Disney Animated Classic, because while Pixar is doing a tremendous job now, I want to see material from the original Disney studios, who made countless unforgettable quality animated feature films, all even before the invention of CGI.

And another reason why I can't wait for this film, is the one simple reason that got me into Disney in the first place when I was a little girl. It's a classic Disney Princess movie. This marks Rapunzel's entry into the Disney Princesses series as the first CGI-animated princess.

So you're wondering, "What up, wasn't the recent Princess and the Frog a princess movie too?". Yes it was in fact. But it was a princess movie with a different twist. The movie had more focus on the theme of Tiana starting out as a humble waitress working hard to achieve her dreams of owning her own restaurant, and less on the typical princess-meets-prince-charming-and-falls-in-love plot. In fact, when I saw The Princess and the Frog, it definitely felt like a movie from the Disney Renaissance period, with the same kind of animation style, musical numbers and all, but it did not strike me very much as a princess movie. Also, I think Tiana and Naveen had very little chemistry as a couple, and I feel their falling in love was somewhat rushed, especially on Tiana's part.

I haven't seen Tangled, obviously, so I can't say now that there is better chemistry between Rapunzel (voiced by the lovely Mandy Moore) and the extremely handsome Flynn Rider (voiced by the equally handsome Zachary Levi), as compared to Tiana and Naveen. But to me, that was the one downfall of The Princess and the Frog. Lack of chemistry.

I'm sorry, I can't help it if I find them absolutely adorable together.

Okay to stop beating around the bush, it boils down to two reasons why I am super-psyched for this movie, and why I hail it as the return of the Walt Disney Animated Classic: the animation and the music.

Yes I noticed it's in CGI. What makes this different from Pixar's work? Or previous Walt Disney CGI movies like Meet The Robinsons or Bolt? Easy. Just one man. A man named Glen Keane.

Glen Keane is possibly the best and most prominent animator and animation artist ever. His work is best recognized in Disney films and his art and drawing style has brought life to many of our favorite characters over the years.

This man, is the man who inspired me to pick up a pencil and start drawing at the tender age of 4. Through a little mermaid.

Glen Keane was the character designer and supervising animator for Ariel, and she changed my life as an artist. He was also supervising animator for titular characters Pocahontas (and her lively hair), Aladdin and Tarzan, The Beast (of Beauty and The Beast) and John Silver (of Treasure Planet). For Tangled, he serves as executive producer, director of animation, character designer and he contributes to the story as well.

Above: Ariel, taken from The Art of Glen Keane. Below: Rapunzel, taken from Academy of Art Character and Creature Design Notes. See the similarities? Glen Keane has a very recognizable style seen in many Disney movies. (P.S. Please check out these two blogs, they're very interesting).

Tangled is Keane's return to big-screen animation since 2002's Treasure Planet, so I am really glad I get to see his work once again, and in a new form of animation, that is CGI. He was director during earlier stages of production but has stepped down, but still supervises and directs most aspects of the animation. He is adamant in, along with the Walt Disney Animation team, to create a new animation style unlike nothing ever seen before, modern day CGI animation designed to resemble traditional hand-painted animation of the olden days. Their main inspiration was the The Swing, by French traditional oil-painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard.

Looks pretty darn good to me.

Rapunzel is as cute as a button, sharing similar facial features with one of Disney's most beloved heroines, and probably Glen's ultimate masterpiece, Ariel. But I am getting the biggest kick out of Tangled's hero, Flynn Rider. He is possibly the most handsome Disney hero yet. He has sharp and strong facial features, amazing hair, and a great build. And the cutest goatee (and Disney's first hero goatee!).

"It's a nice goatee kay?"

Disney wanted to make Flynn as handsome as possible, thus they got the female Disney animation staff to gather round and give the animators feedback, such as who were their favorite Hollywood handsome stars, what were the best features, which animated heroes were the most handsome, etc.

I don't know what led to what, but Glen's design results are beyond satisfaction. Flynn is unreasonably charming! And here's what I gathered from my study of Flynn's features:

Dimitri from Fox's Anastasia (Sandro Cleuzo, or so I heard, please correct me if you happen to know), Tulio from Dreamworks' The Road To El Dorado (James Baxter, he was the first character I thought of when looking at Flynn's design), and Tarzan (Glen Keane) mixed together would probably look like Flynn Rider.

And if you had watched that video I put up, pause at the 1:21 mark, and you will see that the animators put up a picture of Tulio (and Miguel) from The Road To El Dorado on the wall.

Now if only Flynn were real. Oh--wait--

He's currently living it up with Rapunzel in Disneyland. Is that the Smolder?

Okay I mentioned music earlier. Which brings me to another man. A legendary man. Alan Menken. And along with Keane, Tangled is bringing him back into the spotlight. Tangled is his first musical effort for Disney since Home On The Range (actually Enchanted, but I didn't count it as it isn't a Walt Disney Animated Classic, since we're on the topic).

Menken has composed and written the songs and scores for many of our favorite Disney animated films, such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and two of my absolute favorite Disney scores, Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I have mentioned before that The Hunchback of Notre Dame is my absolute favorite Walt Disney Animated Classic (though The Little Mermaid has the honor of being my first favorite Disney film), and a huge factor contributing to this preference (other than the gorgeous design for Esmeralda, the wonderful background painting and underlying adult themes) was the absolutely brilliant music. Menken, thank you.

I just got a little taste of the music for Tangled today while doing some net-exploring while at work. And I found this.

And I looped it. Over and over again. At work. Non stop.

This is what I missed about the Walt Disney Classics, especially if they involved princesses. While Randy Newman did a spectacular job with the bluesy, soulful and jazzy New Orleans-esque music for The Princess and the Frog, the music lacked the romanticism that would probably help out with, as stated above, what I thought was the film's number one flaw, the lack of chemistry between Tiana and Prince Naveen. I liked the song Ma Belle Evangeline, but I think it's not enough to light the lovebug for this film.

So hearing I See The Light is just so nostalgic, bringing me back to the days of old romantic Disney classics. Menken really delivers just like he did with Beauty and the Beast and A Whole New World. This song is beautiful. And I have already checked out some audio samples of the soundtrack on Amazon.com. So far, I am impressed.

And golly gee, I didn't know Zachary Levi could sing! If you guys don't know who Zac Levi is, google him, and prepare to be surprised!

So yes, I am really excited for Tangled because the traditional Walt Disney Animated Classic needs a reboot, and I think Tangled has the whole package! Plus the next-level animation.

I haven't felt like this for a very long time (well actually, since Toy Story 3 earlier this year, but it's a good feeling so it's not a bad thing to experience it often), you know how your mom buys you a rare kind of candy you used to eat as a child, and you just grab it out of her hands to savor it just like you did when you were younger? Then you get this warm fuzzy feeling, coupled with goosebumps as you think "It's as good as I remember."

I'm getting that feeling now. So everyone, if you're as big a Disney baby as I am (believe me, I AM A HUGE DISNEY BABY), you'd catch this on opening night. It opens in theaters this part of the world with the title Rapunzel: A Tangled Tale, on December 2nd. It's a shitty long time from now, but I'll manage.

Also I just realized.

Tangled has an Altivo too, his name is Maximus, and he's as hostile as Altivo is to his human companions. So the only difference left is Miguel not being a chick.

Show of hands, who's ready for Halloween?

2010-10-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

I know we are. This was what/who Jacqkie and I went as last year.

Who or what will we be this year?

My Kina Grannis Stairwells CD arrived! + My first published movie review!

2010-10-25T08:51:00.001-07:00

I know I said I'd blog about other things, but I got so excited when Sweei told me today that my movie review is up on Cinema Online Singapore!

The Last Exorcism Review by Audrey Chan

And a few posts back I was wishing about getting paid for writing about what I love most, and that is film! And here I am!

I don't enjoy watching horror movies (though I have a love-hate relationship with exorcism-themed movies), but I accepted the mission. I feel like I achieved something, even though it isn't much.

So I guess what I wanted to do manifested somehow, in a small way, and it's a small step to something bigger (I hope!) so as Eames said once,

"You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling."

Okay important time. Look what arrived in the mail today. I got hit with a double whammy of gladness.

My Kina Grannis Stairwells CD came in the mail today! AND IT'S GOOD. Been wanting to get her CD for the longest time after I got David Choi's By My Side, but I'm not very good at saving money.

A simple Digipak cover with a simple design. Kina looks gorgeous in this photo!

The tracklist!

To top it all off, a video from Miss Kina herself.

Newsflash! + Edit: Another newsflash!

2010-10-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

Christopher Nolan, why do you spoil me?

News popped up early this morning that Tom Hardy was just ~~incepted~~ casted in the upcoming installment of Nolan's Batman film series. Tom Hardy even trended on Twitter for a while this morning. Add that to your list of lifetime achievements Tom, good on ya mate!

And this comes after rumors of Joseph Gordon-Levitt being a possible choice for The Riddler.

Life. Is. Good.

No news as to who Tom's gonna play but I'm sure I've mentioned and stressed before in my previous posts how amazing an actor this man is, to say the least. He's already got a great list of films coming up in the next two years or so for us, including This Means War, next to Chris Pine and Reese Witherspoon, Warrior with Nick Nolte, and a reboot of Mad Max.

Thank you Christopher Nolan. Once again, you're cementing yourself into my head as one of the most badass directors of our time. Not to mention you'll be helping out with producing the next Man of Steel movie! (Superman, numbnuts)

Edit: ANOTHER NEWSFLASH.

Okay not really, rumors were floating about that Emma Stone was to play Mary-Jane Watson in the reboot of Spiderman, alongside squishy little Andrew Garfield ♥ as Spidey. But turns out she'll be Gwen Stacey instead. I died a little inside. :(

AND VILLAIN REVEALED! Rhys Ifans will play The Lizard!

Unfortunately it won't be Dylan Baker who played pre-Lizard Dr Connor in the original Spidey movie franchise, but it's okay. We didn't really notice him in there did we?

An extra note, Nuffnang tells me that this week, 41% of you readers come from the US, 26% from Singapore and 10% from Malaysia. Thank you foreign readers for stumbling by, and Malaysians where are you guys?

Anyway, I know a big bulk of you readers come by my blog using the keywords "joseph gordon-levitt girlfriend". Since I love writing about JGL (he's one of my favorite actors), let me clear up the fog okay? From what I know, Joe is currently dating Lexy Hulme, a dancer, model and actress. She stars in the hitRECord original production Morgan M. Morgansen film series as Destiny, the love of Morgan M. (played by JGL)'s life.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

2010-10-08T04:01:00.000-07:00

I know I was supposed to write about my 21st birthday but this guy's birthday deserves all the praise and attention of the world now.

John Winston Lennon, born 9th October 1940, Happy 70th Birthday.

As a kid, I grew up listening to a lot of oldies in my parents' car. They would put on old casette tapes of The Carpenters, Kenny G, Peabo Bryson etc. We had old CDs of Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, The Bee Gees and Barry Manilow. And The Beatles would always come on the radio. They were tunes I knew, and I'm sure everyone knew them as well. It was only after high school that I knew how truly genius and how inspiring The Beatles were. Though by that time I had known most of their more prominent songs, I still feel the shame of not knowing them earlier.

I then became a big fan of The Beatles, and had a very great respect for John, Paul, Ringo and George. I then started to listen to just John's music. Because well, there had to be something so special about this guy that made him so loved, so respected, so admired. A legend to the whole world. And like his wife Yoko Ono and like so many people all over the world, I fell in love with him. I believed in what he believed in. I began to admire everything that is John Lennon. Even my favorite Beatles song is Across The Universe, originally written by John.

He who charmed the world with amazing music. Beautiful music. Meaningful and thoughtful music. He who wrote and sang of peace, love and....walruses.

To keep up with Lennon's legacy, I have been following Yoko Ono's Twitter account for some time now, and just only started following their son Sean's (whose birthday also falls on the same day!).

And I love that they continue to keep him alive in all of us. That they still push his ideas to the world. Though it must pain them so much every time they have to recall the incident that took him away from us.

Associated Press reports:

"I listened to his music almost every day or every other day or something the past 30 years because there's other requests and things, and for business reasons I listened to them. But it's not a very relaxing thing to do. I don't listen to his songs to just relax, because then, you know, it just makes me feel sort of, well — it's painful in a way."
-Yoko Ono

But John continues to live on in all they do, including Sean's solo music career and Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band. These are some photos of their latest show "We Are Plastic Ono Band!".

I assume Youtube, MTV and well, radio in general will go crazy with all the tributes to John. Google already put one up early this afternoon. You can see it on the Google homepage.

And to further support Lennon's quest for world peace and love, please join me in contributing to accumulate a million wishes for PEACE for John Lennon's birthday, October 9th to Imagine Peace Tower's Twitter account. Also, catch the relighting of Imagine Peace Tower in Reykjavik, Iceland by Yoko Ono live at IMAGINEPEACETOWER.com at:7.45pm GMT, 8.45pm UK, 2.45pm NY, 11.45am LA or 4.45am Japan.

For more information on sending wishes, check out Yoko's Twitter page (link up there) or The Beatles' Facebook page.

Another tribute came in the form of a movie last year, called Nowhere Boy starring Kick Ass's Aaron Johnson, and is the directorial debut of Sam Taylor-Wood, the photographer responsible for the much talked about photoshoot for Rolling Stones for which John stripped naked, just ten days before his assasination. It documents John's life growing up as a teenager.

I have yet to watch this movie unfortunately as I missed what limited screenings it had here in Singapore. Yoko however, is impressed by it, and is happy that Sam made this movie.

Happy Birthday to Sean Ono Lennon and the great man himself, John Lennon. The world is still not yet perfect, and we could do with someone like you around, John.

But then, there's no one like you, is there?

Lots of love.

Holy shit. Movie reviews, paparazzi shots, movie news, music introductions? WHAT IS THIS?

2010-10-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

I should be an entertainment blogger. Only, I'll blog about entertainment I like. That is not necessarily in line with what others like. Which is why I don't get paid to do this shit. *headdesk*

Anyway, I haven't had the time to do my DVD rental reviews. Last few weeks have been busy with the crucial bits of our project (but has been over for 2 weeks or so, so it's not as busy now) and also my birthday party. Some of the movies are re-watches so there's not much to review. So here are the last 6 DVDs I rented, with some short comments/opinions, for those of you who have not watched these, and are interested in giving them a shot. :)

The Brothers Bloom, starring Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz and Rinko Kikuchi

This movie about two conmen brothers is extremely charming, loads of influence from 1920s-1930s caper/heist movies, even though set in a modern setting; right down to their clothing! Oh bless the costume designer for this movie. This movie is directed by Rian Johnson, director of the brilliant Brick, and has a wonderfully whimsical score composed by Rian's brother Nathan Johnson (I totally got the soundtrack, it is lovely). Some trivia, Rinko Kikuchi only has one line in the entire movie: "Fuck me." Make of that what you will. Don't worry, this movie is still PG.

Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter

One of my all-time favorite movies. This is a movie that, if you appreciate the sheer genius of it, will stick with you forever like a parasite. Rewatching it was an absolute pleasure of the sickest kind. This movie, being about an underground fighting ring, is very graphic, but has some very interesting words of wisdom from our man Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), and pokes fun at the issues of consumer capitalism and being a slave to 'the system'.

Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken and Amy Adams

Wasn't a big Leo fan until I watched this movie. Mom, who is a huge fan of Leo's, said I should try it out and I am glad I did. Add another testament to Spielberg's ability to direct great comedy-dramas to the list (one of my favorite movies being The Terminal). This movie is a biography of the once-conman-currently-millionaire Frank Abagnale Jr. I was very much impressed by Leo's mastery at capturing Frank's innocence as a teenager, and also his expertise in the art of forging, into one character.

The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey, Laura Linney and Ed Harris

Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) is a man living a perfectly normal and satisfying life. What he doesn't know is that his life is being watched 24/7 on TV by the whole world. It was delightful to see Jim Carrey in another dramatic role rather than his silly hysterical ones. And he disappoints no one. The movie is a great debate between reality and the illusion of it, all in itself, and is very endearing and heartwarming.

Thank You For Smoking, starring Aaron Eckhart, Cameron Bright and Katie Holmes

Aaron Eckhart is Nick Naylor, lobbyist for The Academy of Tobacco Studies, very good at his job. Basically a movie about good PR, and that if you can master argument, you are never wrong. Directed by one of my favorites Jason Reitman, this movie is a huge bundle of intelligent wit and sarcasm, has an amazing script, very artistic with plot transitions, and this movie officially made me an Aaron Eckhart fan. Later, Batman didn't help.

Red Corner, starring Richard Gere and Bai Ling

I just rented and watched this one tonight. Mom, being the huge Richard Gere fan she is, suggested it to me after we watched a documentary about journalist-cum-real estate agent Eric Volz. This movie is about being wrongfully indicted for a crime committed in a country that is not your own, and being subjected to the laws of that particular country. In this case, it's communist China. Can I get a "B-A-N"?? It wasn't a brilliant movie, but it was still very engaging detective story. The unfoldings of the crime may be predictable, but that's not the point of the story.

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Okay now that we're done with that, it's time for some movie news.

Tumblr has become a much loved place on the Internet for me, because of FuckYeah!TomHardy. Not only is it updated everyday with a delicious amount of Tom Hardy media, we followers get first dibs on paparazzo shots of dear Tom on the set of his new movie This Means War with co-star Reese Witherspoon.

How yummy is this guy? Someone uploaded an old TV-movie he did for BBC a couple years back on Youtube; it's called Stuart: A Life Backwards, a biography-movie about the homeless man-cum-activist Stuart Shorter. I just watched it last week, and dear Lord.

His small stint in Inception is just the tip of the iceberg. This man is an amazing actor. I know I say that for a lot of actors, but his role of the mentally-disturbed, suicidal, physically-challenged Stuart really really impressed me. I felt sorry for him, I laughed at and with him, I cried for him, and I was extremely convinced by his performance. I don't look at him the same anymore.

The past week has been a flurry of Tom Hardy pap shots, from him being on set, to him arriving at Vancouver (the film location) airport with his fiancée and fellow actress Charlotte Riley. I must say he is looking extremely fine, different from his slightly chubby Eames in Inception and haggard and skinny Stuart in Stuart: A Life Backwards. Those tattooed arms, and that tattooed chest will be the death of many women (and men) out there.

Somebody remove the safety off those guns, hot damn.

Also I just found out from Sweei at Cinema Online that Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World has been taken off the releases list for Malaysia and Singapore. WHAT THE OW-FUCK-FUCKITY-OW GUYS?

I waited so long for this movie, because it was supposed to have a 3-month delay in release compared to the US release, read and re-read my Scott Pilgrim comic books, and this is uh...important people...them...those who decide on these things....RUINING MY PRETTY GOOD MOVIE YEAR. This is the biggest disappointment to me since I heard Shyamalan was making The Last Airbender...and that was about 3 years ago. My friend has said no reason was stated as to why Scott Pilgrim will not be gracing our shores, but I heard on MSN Entertainment that it might come in a limited release in Malaysia, very much like how Juno did. Let's all hope for the best.

Or not, I'm gonna get the fucking DVD and wish a thousand curses upon the faggotry that Important People had bestowed upon us Malaysians and Singaporeans.

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Speaking of Tumblr, I am also a follower of the unofficial She & Him tumblelog. We get some cool things on there. Gig and shoot photos, links to videos and rare and special downloads. I just downloaded a live cover of The Beach Boys' Wouldn't It Be Nice. Have been a big fan of their work *huggles my Volume 2 Digipak*

Click the photo to get the download, enjoy!

Also, because I can't get enough of this guy.

Here's the new Spiderman, absolute-cutie Andrew Garfield singing the famous Bed Intruder song. THIS IS THE MOST ADORKABLE THING I'VE SEEN IN THE LONGEST TIME.

Alright, that will be all for now.

"In case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening and good night."

-Truman Burbank

You're my clean white love, you're too clean, white love.

2010-09-28T19:38:00.001-07:00

Just had my 21st birthday party last weekend. The hippie one I was talking about. But I can't think of writing about it now. Granted it was a sick party, but I don't have the drive to write about it now. All I have in my head now is one thing. Well, it's just music. Lisa Mitchell in fact.

I have an epic girl crush on her. Her music is great, and she seems like such a lovely person. I want to see her at one of her shows in future.

She is, personally, my indie queen. Basically this was a pointless post, with a gratuitous picture and video to spread the Lisa love. Please give her some love. People this part of the world need to stop listening to mainstream crap and keep their eyes peeled for true talent like this girl here.

Take some 85% chocolate, it's good for your cough. Trust me, I'm Batman. Happy 21st to me.

2010-09-18T20:31:00.000-07:00

This is about me, being Batman on my 21st birthday. And how I ate a mountain of chocolate to cure my cough.

It's officially twelve hours since my birthday was over, what up? It was a simple one, most of the excitement and party is left for next Saturday's hippie party. Yes I will be having a hippie party. Not a crazy night out at the clubs, or a boozer at the pubs, a hippie party. In my place. With chips and dips. And the Beatles. And Twister. What can I say, I'm traditional.

So as I said before, my birthday was extremely simple. Was supposed to head for drinks with some dudes from the office on Friday night, but I was, and am still, recovering from a flu I caught from Eric last week when I was home. Not feeling up for it, I stayed home on Friday night.

Yesterday on my actual birthday, I went for lunch with mom, Ash and Aunt Swee Lai who happened to be in town. We went for Italian buffet at Basilico in the Regent hotel. Had very lovely food, I especially loved the duck carpaccio, the salad (and it's lovely balsamic cream dressing) and the fig and banana strudel. Mom bought me a vintage leather wallet from Fossil last week when we were back home (OMG it's so pretty I DON'T EVEN--), and Aunt Swee Lai surprised me with a lovely silver bracelet from Tiffany & Co. I was very much surprised.

We later went shopping for a dress for Ash to wear to her teacher's wedding she would be going for later in the evening. Aunt Swee Lai bought me 3 bars of Frey 85% chocolate. To eat. WHEN I HAVE A COUGH AND SORE THROAT.

She read in a medical journal, tried and tested, that I should eat a large quantity of high pure chocolate percentage, so that I would eventually cough up all the phlegm. It's due to the high content of some ingredient in the chocolate, she says (I googled it, it's called theobromine). This was the first time someone told me I should eat chocolate when I have a sore throat or cough.

"How much should I take?"

"About a third of the bar."

"A THIRD?!"

It worked like fucking magic. Granted the chocolate tasted horrible (Oh boohoo, I have my preferences, and it's not bitter chocolate) and was immensely difficult to swallow, but 10 minutes later, I coughed up this monstrous glob of phlegm, my voice was returning and my cough got better by the end of the day.

Why aren't doctors selling this shit?

Thanks Aunt Swee Lai for the remedy and the bracelet. And mom for the wonderful wallet. I love these gifts so much. :)

Anyway, before I visited the doctor back on Monday when I just caught the cold, I walked past DC apparel and noticed they were having a sale. I dropped in and swiped some stuff for chump change. I got this awesome Superman shirt, that was plain black with the words "Daily Planet" on it. Awesome. I also got a green Batman hoodie and a T-shirt that said "Trust me, I'm Batman."

I took the opportunity to wear this shirt to the office on casual Friday, and while nobody noticed it was a Batman shirt, I was pretty happy to be in it. So I posted on Facebook...

And I left it at that ever since.

Needless to say, when the birthday wishes started flurrying in, there were some pretty interesting Batman-related ones. I spent a good amount of my time being thoroughly amused by them.

THE BATMAN IS PLEASED.

P.S. I returned Catch Me If You Can today, and thought of treating myself to rewatching two movies this week instead of the usual one, so I decided to rent both The Truman Show and Thank You For Smoking. Turns out I get one movie for free since it was my birthday, so I ended up paying for only one movie. LIFE IS SWEET. That, and there was a RocknRolla rerun on TV tonight. SCORE.

All The Young Dudes

2010-09-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

Because my cousin Jo did this, here's 30 absolutely random things about me.

Name: Audrey Chan
Gender: ~~Dude~~Chick
Date of birth: 18 September 1989
Height: 166cm
Weight: 60kg

I am deathly afraid of needles; and the pain inflicted by needles... and fire; I don't know how to use a lighter. I am also afraid of, or paranoid about, microwaves. And geckos/lizards. I absolutely hate geckos. More than cockroaches.
My two major loves in life are music and film. I CANNOT GET ENOUGH. Why I don't know how to play any musical instrument, or why I did not study film, IS BEYOND ME.
I am the WORST person to give an iPhone. I barely know what to do with it, I don't bother getting many apps/games except for the basic essentials (Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter etc.), and I pretty much just stock it up with just music. You might as well get me an iPod.
I have 1043 songs on my iPhone, from 88 different albums, with an artist count of 140. 13 of those albums are original soundtracks or film scores. Out of the 1043 songs, 2 are in Bahasa Malaysia, 3 in Portugese, 8 in Hebrew, 14 in French and the rest in English. There are 42 songs starting with the word (or some variation of the word) "I", 7 starting with the word "Sweet", 6 starting with the word "Hello" and 4 starting with the word "Bad". All in all, this makes up for about 10 - 15% of my entire music library that's in my Mac.
I memorize lines from movies fairly easily, after at least two sittings.
I rarely buy bags and shoes. I usually end up buying shoes only when I need to, and when I do, I am extremely picky. As for bags, I usually take what I can get, and I mostly get my mom's hand-me-down designer ones.
I like to pick out my own clothes and accessories. So yes, these two are risky if you're thinking about ever giving me gifts. For clothes, I'm not extremely picky but I do prefer certain kinds of clothing over others. I'm getting very much into the vintage/mod-rock/post-grunge fashion, following my change in taste in music. I try not to follow trends so I can figure out my own personal style. I like chunky accessories, especially necklaces, earrings and wrist-wear. I go for weird trinkets and pendants like coins, military and navy badges and buttons, animals, bottlecaps and stuff. The bigger the better.

I wore all this in a single outfit.

I like hats. Again, I like em' old school. Berets, crochet beanies, fedoras and bowlers.

I used to have a fair singing voice. Until I caught laryngitis twice in three weeks. Now my voice strains easily, and I don't sing well anymore due to lack of practice.
My favorite band is currently Augustana. The title of "Audrey's favorite band" gets passed on like a pageant crown, depending on current interest and playtime. Since I got Can't Love, Can't Hurt three weeks ago, I have been on an Augustana fix.
The same can't be said for my favorite singer. My favorite singer is, and will always be, Frank Sinatra.
My favorite actor is currently Joseph Gordon-Levitt. My favorite movie starring him is Brick.

This picture is possibly what two of my favorite things in the world plus together would look like. Sinatra and Gordon-Levitt. God bless you both.

I'm a simple person when it comes to my hair. Just an even-length straight cut, and bangs. I tried layering, rebonding and coloring my hair back when I was a teenager, and I realized a) how ridiculous I looked, b) how I was neglecting the natural fullness of my hair, and c) how it was destroying my hair. Thus I'm going au naturel all the way from now on.
I cut my hair to look like Zooey Deschanel's. Only I don't have the balls to do curls like she did.

The skin on my arms are naturally dry. They give the feeling of perpetual goosebumps. It is incurable and the only way I can make them feel better is by applying moisturizing lotion everyday. Say it with me. "I am a freak."
I am the most annoying person to sit next to on the train. If I have my music, I hum, I tap, I air-drum.
I dislike phone calls. I don't like calling people, and I don't like people calling me. Except if it's my family. If a person calls me, it has to be short and to-the-point. If you called me to talk about how you fought with your boyfriend and are on the verge of a breakup expecting me to console you, chances are only 30% of the entire phone conversation will register.
Reading comic books is in my blood. My dad used to read The Beano magazines and Marvel comics. The other day he came into my room and asked if I had any comics for him to read. I took out my Batman and Superman #700 issues for him and he commented that he did not like DC's stuff because they were always "too dark" for him.
I am not a big fan of ice-cream. You thought it was impossible to find someone who won't scream for ice-cream? Well here I am. I only like certain flavors, and if those flavors aren't available, I'd rather not have any at all. My favorite ice-cream flavor is cookie-dough. Extra points if there is actual cookie-dough in it.
Same goes for chocolate. Not a big chocolate fan. I'll only eat certain brands.
I'm not crazy for peanut butter either. I don't see why everyone likes it so much.
My favorite candy is Skittles. I hate how in this part of the world, I've only seen the Original Fruit Skittles, the Wild Berry Skittles and the Skittles Sour. I've tried different variants when I was in Australia: Smoothie Mix, Chocolate Mix, Tropical and Skittles Sensations.
When I was 9, my idols were Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. I swear to God. I blame those catchy "You're Invited to Mary-Kate and Ashley's *insert type here* Party!" musical tapes I used to rent. I SWEAR, I still remember the lyrics to some of the songs.

This shit. I swear to God. Back in my day, it was good shit.

I used to go for rhythmic gymnastics (otherwise known as gymrama) classes when I was about 8. But because I didn't have actual foundation in gymnastics, by the time I hit second grade, I failed so badly, I dropped out.
I don't read a lot of books. I look like I do, but I don't. I know I should read more, but I can't seem to be able to bury myself in a book. I am unable to immerse myself into written fiction. I do however, read a lot of magazines, a lot of feature writing. Which, I believe, contributes to my interest in feature writing. And to all those As in my Feature Writing classes.
I consider myself a little like Frank Abagnale Jr. (the conman, look him up). I don't know a lot of things, but I can make you think I know a lot of things. I can look like I know a lot of things. I make it a point to learn little bits about everything, so even if I don't know the whole way around a topic, I can at least take a few steps, and pretend I own it. You and I can be talking for an hour about Supernatural, when in truth, I've never watched a full season and I only caught a few episodes in between. I may seem like I know a hell lot about superheroes (maybe more than your average girl) but in truth, I'm not an avid comic collector. I just read what I can and...know stuff.
When I can't sleep, I talk to myself. So I eventually get bored of myself and sleep.
I hate teddy-bears. It's the last thing you should think about giving me as a gift. You can give me a box of tampons, or a $2 alarm clock and it still won't be worse than a teddy-bear. I've been given bears before as gifts, and I only keep/care for a few that were given by close friends. All others are usually ignored.
I don't like wearing shades because a) they never seem to sit on my nose, b) it's hard to find a pair that looks good on me, and c) my ears are not aligned properly so when you look at my face straight-on when I'm wearing shades, you will see that one side of glasses is higher than the other. I do wear nerd glasses sometimes though.

I have a little crater on my forehead. It's a deep scar that was left behind from a chicken pox bout I got when I was 11. It's like how people say "Don't press that button!" and you do it anyway? Yeah this time it was more like "Don't pick on that scab!" Kids, please don't pick your scabs. Not unless they're in places that can't be seen.

I guess that's it then. You know 30 more things about me today.

Hi, I'm an 8.5. What rating did you get from your guy friends?

2010-09-04T04:56:00.000-07:00

You guys ever watched the movie She's Out Of My League? Starring Oh-so-adorable Jay Baruchel and Hot-for-words Alice Eve? So then you know the whole premise of the movie then? Kirk meets Molly and his friends says she's too good for him. She's a 10 and he's a 5. He'll never get with her.

What does that even mean? What does it mean when someone tells you you're a "8.5"?

I'm sure you dudes and dudettes out there have thought about this issue. "I wonder what the guys think of me?" and "You think the girls have ever talked about which one of us is the hottest?" It's human nature. We're inquisitive. We thrive on the pleasure of knowing, even if it's information that nobody else gives a rat's ass about. And that is because human beings, while forever seeking knowledge, also spread it. If you don't know it, you're not satisfied.

Yes in all honesty, we do end up talking about our friends of the opposite sex, and there is a high possibility that we will end up ranking them. Like the "Shoot, Shag and Marry" game. Who out of these three people would you shoot, shag or marry? I can't say the same about the guys, but it's something the girls have a lot of giggly fun with. We can go on for hours why we think Scott is cuter than Wallace (see what I did there?).

So yes, I guess I can say that everyone ranks their friends of the opposite sex. What I didn't think was real was that some people actually give ratings. Like in She's Out Of My League.

At Kerry and Syafiq's birthday party, after Syafiq's friends got drunk and started dunking each other into the pool (which probably hasn't been cleaned since the Holocaust), and after everyone high-tailed it outside to avoid getting Nazi pool-tossed, Daren picked then of all times to bombard me (seriously, there was so much other stuff going on at the time, I had no coherent train of thought) with a question.

"Why are you still single?"

"Huh?"

"You're like...an 8.5. Why the fuck are you still single?"

"I'm an 8.5?!"

I honestly wasn't expecting such a high number. I didn't think I was hot or anything, but I knew I was 'nice-looking'.

"No seriously. You've got big boobs, got ass, quite pretty and...YOU'RE A DUDE."

"Thanks Daren, thanks...Maybe that's why I'm single, because I'm a dude."

Then Kent steps in and goes "No no no. That's not how it works." Brian just shakes his head and goes "Mmm mmm." in rebuttal to my statement.

I actually thought the dude bit was a compliment. I actually take pride in being one of the dudes. I'm a huge nerd for most things dudes like (except sports), I play video games, I listen to rock bands that would make most girls cringe, I LIKE pointless action movies, I read comic books and watch cartoons, and I am possibly one of the most chillaxed girls you will EVER meet in your life.

I am a dude. I am always one of the boys.

Wanted to add a photo with Daren, Kent and Brian but apparently I have no photos with just them. AW. So according to my guy friends, guys like girls who are like them? I'm sure everyone has their preferences, but what do you think? Do guys like girls who are dudes because they won't complain if they watch too much football? Or won't call them when they're out for drinks with their buddies, asking them to come home? Is it likely that the girl will be there with them, doing all the things they as dudes do? Possibly.

And I think that's how I resemble a guy most. I am casual, I don't nitpick, in fact I don't really care what you do so much. I have never been in an actual relationship, though I have dated. And why I've never asked a guy to commit to me (even if I did love any of the guys I dated) and why I have never committed to those who have asked me to, is because I am in their shoes. I don't want to be put in a box, and I don't want to put them in a box. Not saying that all relationships are dictatorial or authoritative. It's just that when you get together with someone, you have to commit, and you have to put up boundaries, make rules. Or else, there's no point in having a relationship in the first place.

I'm not a good rule-maker, neither am I good at keeping to rules. And the real reason why I'm not good at all this, is that I really don't care. I may have tried. But I can't. I don't care if you want to go out all night and party with strippers. I don't care if you're into weed (if you're into smack or cocaine, then maybe I'd boot you). I don't care if you stare at other girls when they walk past.

That's maybe because I really don't care about you much. Why are we in a relationship again?

I told you I was chillaxed.

I have not found anyone special enough for me to care about everything they do. Would you like to try asking me why I'm single again?

I'm not heartless, I can love. In fact, I love all my guy friends with all my heart. Just not that way. No one's proven to be special enough. If I truly love you I will shower you with all my attention and devotion. I have not found the need or want to do that for anyone. So why bother?

"So do you have a boyfriend?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don’t want one."

"Come on; I don’t believe that."

"You don’t believe that a woman could enjoy being free and independent?"

"Are you a lesbian?"

"No I’m not a lesbian. I just, don’t feel comfortable being anyone’s girlfriend. I don’t actually feel comfortable being anyone’s anything."

"I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Really?"

"Nope."

"Okay, let me break it down for you–"

"Break it down!"

"Okay. I, like being on my own. I think relationships are messy and people’s feelings get hurt. Who needs it? We’re young, we live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world; might as well have fun while we can and, save the serious stuff for later."

"Holy shit, you’re a dude. She’s a dude!"
- McKenzie and Summer, (500) Days of Summer.

But I think what Daren meant in asking me why I was single, was that being an 8.5, a guy probably would already have snatched me up like nerds in queue for the iPhone 4. I'm an 8.5, somewhat attractive (I take into account the boob and ass factor), and I am a dude.

What's not to like?

In my defense, I have had my share of guys try to ween their way into my life. They just get eventually turned off from how ungirly I am, how painfully straightforward I am, how much of a know-it-all I am, how much of a dude I am, how different and foreign I am that they don't even bother to try and conquer me. In fact, COME HITHER. I welcome you to try and throw me a comeback. I think smart guys are sexy.

So I'll just continue on, the casual, laidback, devil-may-care, chillaxed person that I am. I could care so less, that I am neutral. Seriously, I am neutral as neutral can be. Which is why I give great relationship advice, because I am not a fuck biased.

So, is it unfair or odd that an 8.5 is this carefree about love? This has been a very interesting study, and I have rediscovered things about myself that I subconsciously knew all along. I am proud about my stand in love, because I am one of the few who actually are content with being where I stand.

I'll shut up now. Lots of love from the girl who's an 8.5.

These things move in threes (RocknRolla, GI Joe and Brick movie reviews)

2010-08-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

Remember how I started an account at this place that does DVD rentals? I also said I'd be doing a weekly video review for each movie I watch? I figured I had no time for that. So I'll just do these quick catch-up posts with review-snippets of each movie I watch. My first DVD rental was Uncertainty, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lynn Collins. Main reason for rental being...Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Already did a review for that one here.

Second DVD rent was RocknRolla. I remember why I didn't go to watch it when it first came out. I remember it was during my college days. I remember wanting to watch it. Just cos' of its name. RocknRolla. How can that not be cool? But because I didn't want to be sad enough to watch movies alone, I always get my friends and family to go with me. And all favor went to Quantum of Solace, The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and other films. The hype of these movies actually killed my psych over wanting to watch RocknRolla.

So I picked it up now. Two hints as to why. One. Inception. Two. Tom Hardy. I swear to God. This man is sex on legs. Doesn't help that he's a great actor, and is irritatingly charming. And I have to say, I love this movie. Sex, drugs, thugs, and rock and roll. Literally. I always had a thing for action movies. All kinds. If a movie is all explosions and testosterone, throw it my way, I'll still enjoy it. But action with sexy added to the mix, now that's what I would really go for. RocknRolla is action plus sexy plus wit.

Wit? Loads of it. Involving Archy giving slapping lessons, Handsome Bob being all hot and gay for One Two who's a total homophobe. And Johnny Quid being a total badass junkie. And accents. You have no idea how funny "Fuck off." sounds like in the UK accents until you watch this movie.

Action? Not explosions and stuff, but loads of gun action and beating people up. And chasing. Through tunnels. Shirtless. With tattoos. And cock-sucking gestures. See? Wit.

Sexy? Gerard Butler, Tom Hardy, Toby Kebbell, and fuck yeah Mark Strong. AND the awesomest and funniest sex scene in the history of film. And ACCENTS. HOLY HELL ACCENTS.

And the rock and roll? It's so good. Main theme for the movie would be Rock n Roll Queen by The Subways, I reckon. And it's so good. It's even good on the trailers. And funny thing is I was introduced to The Subways when I saw them at the Adelaide leg of the Soundwave Rock Festival 2009. I wished I had watched the movie before then. I would've picked the band up, and actually went to see them as a fan. I would've gotten autographs and videos and shit.

So yeah, for the sake of awesomeness, here's the trailer for RocknRolla.

Next was GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Really, I only got this for Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And because it was one of the big movies of last year that I missed. So honestly, I didn't use to watch GI Joe on TV, so I went in not expecting anything, except JGL. And Channing Tatum. Whose body I think is yum. That is it.

I didn't miss much I guess. In fact, my entire highlight of the movie was JGL. In about a gajillion tons of aesthetics to make him look like Quasimodo. Minus the hunchback. I thought he was really good as Cobra Commander. He was the perfect mad scientist villain. He had the many-octaves-low evil voice, his mannerisms and gestures were down to a T. I heard he had fan outcry before the movie and then fan approval after. Just proves what a good actor he is.

Sadly I can't say the same for the rest of the movie. Channing Tatum was lacking as the hero, and I wanted Sienna Miller aka The Baroness to be evil of her own accord, SO BADLY. The bit about her being brainwashed was cliche as the plot of your average chick flick. The other stars were also lacking. Korean dude who played Storm Shadow was to GI Joe as was Rain to Speed Racer. One word: MEH. Only Speed Racer was actually good. Also, chick who played Scarlett? Deadpan. When she should and shouldn't be. Not so good for the last part.

It was a bit tiresome watching this movie. Not that it was draggy, but it was just...not good. Not bad, just not good. I only lit up during the Cobra Commander bits and during the chase with the next-level-tech accelerator suits that cost a bajillion dollars (that Rip managed to total from his first step onwards).

I'm not gonna put the trailer here, cos' you should never trust a trailer. Especially this one. It's not as good as it looks. You guys have probably already seen it anyway.

And yes. I knew GI Joe is not a person.

Fourth movie rental is Brick, by writer and director Rian Johnson. Once again, rented for JGL. Seeing a pattern? Good, it'll give you some foresight as to the next 6 or so movies I will rent. It's a modern day detective story about Brendan Frye (played by the wonderful Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who has just lost the girl he loves to some shady business with some shady company, and he wants to find out who did it.

This will be my favorite indie film after Donnie Darko. This movie is so good. Rian Johnson is a visionary, you would hardly believe this movie is his debut. NO KIDDING. This movie takes elements of classic noir-hardboiled detective drama films and gives it an all-new premise. A high-school small-town setting with teenage characters, but stylized to resemble old-school detective flicks. And when I say stylized, I mean really stylized. Even in the dialogue:

"No, bulls would gum it. They'd flash their dusty standards at the wide-eyes and probably find some yegg to pin, probably even the right one. But they'd trample the real tracks and scare the real players back into their holes, and if we're doing this I want the whole story. No cops, not for a bit."

Who talks like that nowadays? Considering the main characters of the flick are teenagers, it would seem a little unreasonable to point this to the teenage/young adult film-audience. It was a little hard for me to grasp the entire story as I am not so familiar with the classic noir detective film to know its lingo, and even more difficult for my 13-year old sister to follow (technically she was underage, this was an R movie). But the beauty of this movie is the way that little bits of the story is hidden behind this lingo and all types of symbolism, that eventually unravel to show you the bigger picture. I didn't understand much of it as it went on but I got it towards the end, and it didn't leave me disappointed or hanging. Masterfully done.

The plot was well-written, with great transition in between the general plot, foreshadowing and flashbacks. The symbols used in the movie and plot-tools were used very well to keep us guessing, to keep us thinking and guessing, captivating the audience. And it will not bore you. There's a mix of action scenes in there to keep you on your toes, and heaps emotional drama and CONFRONTATION. Like, the good kind.

The snappy and snarky script was wonderfully written, and gave the movie that sexy element that you find in old gangster movies. RocknRolla was a bit like this too with some Brit slang. You'd really have to pay attention. I had to rewind it a bit a few times in fear I missed something when I hung my head to eat my dinner. The lingo was cool, kept things mysterious and shady, which is very much like the whole premise of the business and trouble the characters get themselves into.

The characters themselves are wonderful chess pieces in a great game of cat and mouse. Brendan Frye is an all-hating person who wants to shed some light on his ex-girlfriend's death, for vengeance? Closure? Doesn't matter. It's the great lengths he goes to to find out who, that drives the story. And it makes an awful lot of sense, as she is about the only thing he loves in the world and he wants her back. So much so, that he fights his way through all the baggage she left behind, and uses people for the sake of that cause. Am I not making him sound like a good guy? What I call a bastard with good intentions. He wants to find his girlfriend's killer and wants to bust him to the authorities.

To get to which he has to play puppetmaster to a few other characters, most of them I can't reveal without spoiling, but one, his ~~best~~ good friend Brain, who serves as the intel for his entire operation. Makes me wonder how much this Brain guy likes/admires/respects a guy like Brendan to be willing to possibly get his hands dirty for him. Either way, the characters were very well-written, and played by very very talented actors. Watching JGL in this movie is like watching a totally different person. You would not recognize him, and I don't just mean physically (he looks very different here). He is very convincing in about every aspect of Brendan: hateful, snarky, loving, stoic. Lukas Haas is another very experienced actor and would later be acting alongside Gordon-Levitt in Inception, as Nash: Cobb and Arthur's architect before Ariadne during the Cobol job. He is total boss in Brick. In more ways than one.

This movie is absolutely brilliant. You want a movie with soul, depth and dark, and a bit more intelligence than your average movie fare, then get Brick. Forget that this movie was made on a tiny budget, or that you haven't heard of most of the actors/actresses on it. It is good. Thank you Rian Johnson. I will honor you by going to rent The Brothers Bloom next. You can thank JGL for promoting the movie a year or so back, or else I would have never have heard of it.

Here's the trailer for those of you who want to venture into its brilliance. It's an indie flick and thus did not make it to most if not any movie theaters in this part of the world, so do yourself a favor and educate yourself in sheer film art.

Also on the last picture of me (and my attempt at being serious and stoic in a photo), in the background is my new Up In The Air poster. I got it from the DVD rental place (they give out posters for free!)

AND IT'S AS BIG AS MY KICK-ASS ONE. I love Jason Reitman, and his works Juno and Thank You For Smoking. And Up In The Air was no less a great movie.

Cheerio.

Pure Grain Alcohol

2010-08-21T02:34:00.001-07:00

I started a Tumblr account where I will mostly be posting up photos that I took. I might or might not post my artwork on there, so we'll see. There's also some stuff like photos, artwork there that I reblogged from other Tumblr-owners.

Pure Grain Alcohol.

I've posted a few photos up, that I have edited vintage-like, here's some I have posted and some I plan to post. My photography skills are standard-issue, nothing special. I'm not using a pro or even a semi-pro. Just a normal digi-cam. So don't expect much. :)

If you have a Tumblr, you can follow me if you'd like, or leave your URL here so I can follow you back. :)

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 07 - 100th POST! Of the only time you'll hear me sing.

2010-08-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

So here's me speaking in a horrid Australian accent, because someone said I should. Also me singing New Soul by Yael Naim. My blog finally hits its 100th post, after I started it like almost 2 years ago. YAY.

Yay Kick-Ass on my wall.

Songs used:

Arm Drawing, I Want To Get Her Back and Train Ride Home by Mychael Danna [off the (500) Days of Summer Score]

Stop laughing.

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 06 - Of geeking out and Uncertainty

2010-08-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

So here's the review of Uncertainty that I promised. I really enjoyed the movie. Very intriguing and engaging. And I totally forgot the Australian accent. I swear to God I did. NEXT TIME. I PROMISE.

Yes that Kick-Ass poster is kick-ass huge. I LOVE IT. Thanks Sweei. I need to reshuffle the stuff on my wall so it balances out the new splash of contrast and colors that is this brilliant piece of promotional art.

Songs used:

Empty Days by Augustana (off their All The Stars And Boulevards album)
Sunday Best and Coffee And Cigarettes by Augustana (off their Midwest Skies And Sleepless Mondays album)

Speaking of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, you all know how obviously hopelessly in love I am with this guy. I seriously cannot wait for all these movies he has in store for us over the next year (he's got like 4, he's going places!!). So here is a clip from his new independent flick Hesher. Ecstatic for this one, because:

a) It's got JGL in it, FUCK YEAH.
b) It's got Natalie Portman in it, DOUBLE FUCK YEAH.
c) JGL is sporting a tattooed junkie Jesus look. Wonder if he has the "Jesus abs" Chloë Grace Moretz was talking about in (500) Days (in which she plays JGL's character Tom's sister Rachel)

Have a nice weekend everybody. Jeffrey and Rubee will be back from Adelaide and I am so psyched.

I'm feeling so weightless, I don't know what, I don't know how...

2010-08-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

The reason for that title is because one of my favorite Youtube stars is finally coming to this part of the world for a tour! And I'm really glad that I'm in Singapore because DAVID CHOI IS COMING TO SINGAPORE!

I only got into the whole Youtuber thing earlier this year when my friend Edlin Beat put up one of Natalie "CommunityChannel" Tran's videos on my Facebook page saying that I 'look like her'. I started watching her stuff and then I subscribed. Then I started subscribing to a whole lot of other people on Youtube, like Michelle Phan, Ryan Higa, KevJumba, Charlie McDonnell, Christine Gambito, AJ Rafael, Nick Pitera, Gabe Bondoc, the list goes on. But no subscription list would be complete without Wongfu Productions, and then David Choi, to whom I was introduced by the boys at Wongfu.

I love his music, I love his voice, I love his showmanship, I just think he's an amazing bundle of talent. I bought his second album By My Side a couple months ago to show my support for him! I will get his first album soon (if my salary allows).

Everyone should listen to this guy. I feel that when I listen to his music, you get a positive perspective about a lot of things. For me it's everything. I always feel happier when I listen to him (that or I'm being a major fangirl that's all). But then I don't have a lot of things to be negative about. His music just makes me warmer on a cold night.

Please check out David's Youtube channel and his website and start watching his videos!! Or his Wiki page if you wanna know what the guy is all about. You can also follow him on Facebook and Twitter for latest updates on his videos and tours.

Now I am gonna leave you with some videos so you can gauge his greatness and maybe join me at one of his shows. :)

This was a proud moment in David Choi history: the premier of the music video of his song That Girl (third track in By My Side). He collaborated with Wongfu Productions on this one, and the results are brilliant.

So Weightless is where I got the title for this blogpost. One of my favorite songs from By My Side.

This song By My Side is beautiful. A snippet was played at the end credits of the That Girl video and many people were asking "What's the name of the song at the end?!?!?111" When I heard it the first time, I melted, and when I showed it to Wei Ling, she said it is simply 'beautiful'. Without a doubt, my favorite song on the whole album and I am glad it is the album's namesake.

Dude does covers too. Very well. In fact, I like this cover of Katy Perry's California Girls better than the original!

So yes, if you're interested, please show your support by subscribing to his channel, buying his album or going to see his shows. Who knows when he'll drop by this part of Asia again, so seize the day, grasp this chance!

You're waiting for a train...

2010-08-05T18:39:00.000-07:00

You're waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can't be sure. But it doesn't matter, because we'll be together.

I'm working on that review, and it will be up soon. :) I want it to break your brains as much as the movie did mine.

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 5 - Of Small-talk and DVD Rentals

2010-08-04T00:17:00.000-07:00

So I’m a big fat liar. This video log is a cover up for things I have not been doing. Certain things have changed over the past two months. Our circle of friends has gotten a bit more complicated and breakups and hardships were shared. Which is why I won’t put up a particular video log I was working on, so I won’t bring up painful memories for those involved. It’s not as serious as it sounds (at least I think not) but a lot has changed over 2 months, and whatever I was planning on doing, has changed as well. Such as my approach to the kind of videos I want to put up from now on. I hope none of you have stopped taking interest in my blog. I really appreciate all of you.

But I really have been in a comic book frenzy and movie hype. Not that I never appreciated these things, I always have. It’s just a burst of enthusiasm in them that just hit me recently. It doesn’t help that a giant chunk of all next year’s summer blockbusters are superhero movies.

Songs used:

Helix Nebula by Anamanaguchi (off their Power Supply EP)
Auditor by Britt Daniel & Brian Reitzell (off the Stranger Than Fiction Soundtrack)

Again, I apologize, I will definitely do the Australian accent in my next video. Which is a review of Uncertainty. Fuck. Have a coupon. You are entitled to only ONE snicker. No, you MUST take the coupon. I insist! *shoves it in your grubby paws* You can have only ONE, okay? Remember that.

So I heard MTV World Stage is gonna be awesome.

2010-07-29T20:30:00.000-07:00

Okay so the biggest musical event of the year is ~~Singfest~~ ~~Slash Live in KL/Singapore~~ MTV World Stage. And I'm not going. Surprise surprise. Okay I wish I was going. All my friends back in KL are going. I'm not even going for Singfest. I'm kinda contemplating on going for Slash, which is kinda this weekend.

In fact I already have a ticket for World Stage but it's physically impossible for me to go, so I gave it to a friend. I hope she makes good use of it. :)

But anyway, I've never done any promotion for anything before, except for new movies coming up or favorite Youtube stars, I decided to do some marketing of my own. Don't get your panties in a wad; I'm not getting paid, this is totally voluntary.

MTV World Stage
Date: 31 July 2010
Time: 6pm
Venue: Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach

Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach isn't exactly the best place for a concert. But hey, if tickets are free, what's braving a massive horde of sweaty, over-excited, moshing Malaysians? Thanks Channel X!

The lineup's pretty simple and a little random/sporadic.

Katy Perry!

I still think she's a Zooey Deschanel-wannabe with Gaga quirkiness added to the mix. But her music is undeniably catchy! And her body's to die for. Can I bash her out of jealousy?

Next is, Tokio Hotel!

I stopped listening to their stuff for a while when I made the progression from emo/pop rock to heavy and symphonic metal, but I did listen to them. I love Monsoon and Ready Set Go. Then I head to Australia where I had limited access to radio and cable, and just stopped listening to them entirely, and when I get back, they're back with a new album, new look and new...sound? Not digging their new stuff, but I still really like them. Would be cool to see them. I wonder if they're in the lineup for Singfest?

The Wondergirls. OMG I HEAR THEIR SONG EVERYWHERE. IT'S SO CATCHY, IT'S STUCK IN MY HEAD.

I'm gonna open a can of whoop-ass on the first person who asks me what song I'm talking about.

Next is Bunkface!

I gave up pop-rock so I don't really know much about this band except for the fact that they sound like American Idiot-age Greenday. Your mileage may vary as to how good that is. But yes what's a concert at home without the local flavor?

Okay so I got this from Nikilesh Gan's blog. You may sue me for plagiarism later.

HOW TO GET PASSES?
· You can get your exclusive money-can’t-buy passes by reloading RM50.

Type and send MTV to 28881 and wait for a confirmation.
Reload RM50 upon receiving confirmation SMS and wait for your mobile voucher.
Once you have received the mobile voucher, redeem it at the Ticket Hotline office at NO. 96B, Jalan Burhanuddin Helmi, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail. 03-77251177
OR

· Play MTV World Stage Challenges on Xpax/S.O.X./U.O.X. Facebook pages and be one of the special few who walk away with EXCLUSIVE XZone passes.

OR

· Download Call Me Tones from Channel X and stand chances to walk away with these cool prizes. More details at http://bit.ly/9vppKp

So go get your tickets to the event of the year! And then you can rub it into my face for being able to go and I not being able to.

Death To All Hipsters (and 7 evil ex-boyfriends)

2010-07-23T07:23:00.000-07:00

So the Internet is the revolutionary new way of advertising pretty much anything. When it comes to movies, the more traditional conventional way is by putting up billboards and posters in the streets, putting up trailers before movies or on TV, publishing advertorials and reviews, releasing pre-release merchandise, stuff like that. And all this stuff gets translated into web-format and goes on the Internet. But with the load of junk already on there, and the increasing competition pretty much doing everything you're already doing on there as well, how does your movie stand out from the crowd?

Actually I'm not here to give you a lecture, cos' though I studied advertising in college and uni, I only have a handful of examples I remember. The most prominent one I remember being the I Believe In Harvey Dent marketing campaign for The Dark Knight. In truth, it is a website set up by Warner Brothers to promote the movie, but on the surface it is a mock of an actual Harvey Dent for District Attorney electorial campaign, with press conference videos featuring the actors playing Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes (Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal). There was also a mock sabotage campaign website called I Believe In Harvey Dent Too, supposedly started up by The Joker and his cronies. All promotional gimmicks that hyped up us anticipating movie-goers, and were all implemented pre-movie release as a teaser.

Don't you like that idea? I thought it was pretty smart and snarky. It sure psyched me out.

So at the advent of creative Internet movie-advertising, the world present us with what I am really here to talk about: The 7 Scott Pilgrim vs The World Remixes.

7 for 7 evil ex-boyfriends (from left Ken Katayanagi, Gideon Graves, Matthew Patel, Lucas Lee, Kyle Katayanagi, Todd Ingram, Roxy Richter).

As a lead up to the movie, Universal Pictures released online (thought not all at once) the 7 remix videos, despite already releasing theatrical trailers for the movie. Each video featured a particular theme, and was a remix of a track from the movie score (mostly by Nigel Godrich and Beck), dialogues and clips from the movie. Not only was this a teaser for the upcoming movie, but also a teaser for the awesome music the movie has to serve.

So here they are. The first one I uploaded, "HEY", is my favorite. With the awesome song "Death To All Hipsters" (which is weird since the movie's chockfull of them).

"WE ARE SEX BOB-OMB!! 1, 2, 3, 4!!"
- Kim Pine, Sex Bob-omb

I want the love for this movie to spread like wildfire. I mean, we don't have Comic-Con here obviously. So we don't get firsthand previews and shit. We have to resort to the Internet for the latest news, and it's not the same. Scott Pilgrim vs The World is getting its release date pushed back for more popular and more promoted movies like Harry Potter. Yes, I know it's because of marketing purposes, and Scott Pilgrim's fanbase here in Malaysia/Singapore is very very niche. It's horrid that we're only getting the movie in November as compared to America, because there's not enough love for the movie here to bring it early. But I guess in a way it's good as there will be less screen competition when it releases as most of the summer blockbusters would have already been released.

I am also planning to head back to Malaysia specifically for the premier. I told Swee Wei (who works at Cinema Online) to keep me posted on anything Scott Pilgrim-related, premier dates, release parties etc. Friends Abbers and Dei, and I are planning a Scott Pilgrim cosplay group! And I will be...

Ramona Flowers. Fuck yeah. Of course I look nothing like Mary Elizabeth Winstead, but I can try. 8D

We built our own world.

2010-07-19T08:41:00.000-07:00

So this is gonna be a ginormous movie post. Let's have a list of the movies I'm absolutely psyched for.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Being the total geek I am, I can't wait. The Abster told me about it earlier this year, but I hadn't read any Scott Pilgrim at the time, until a couple months ago and now I am rolling around on the covers, scratching the sheets, just aching to watch it.

I heard we're only getting it in November; that's major suckage.

Michael Cera is Scott Pilgrim. I LOVE MICHAEL CERA. I loved him in Juno, I loved him in Superbad, I loved him in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist...hell Jacqkie even says my Adelaide fling Jordan looks like him.

See what I mean? They even have the same hairstyle. And Jordan's pretty much a geek himself.

So ~~Michael~~ Scott is a normal guy, bassist in the rad rock band Sex Bo-bomb, lives with his openly gay roommate Wallace Wells and is dating a Chinese high-school girl named Knives Chau. That is of course, until he meets and falls head over heels for the super-hot super-mysterious Ramona Flowers. His world gets turned whack when her 7 evil ex-boyfriends show up to kick his ass.

What do you mean THAT'S NOT COOL? Have you not been listening? Okay so I didn't mention these battles are ala video game fashion. And the badguys are so badass, it's not even funny. Well...actually it is pretty funny. But they're still pretty badass. And this is just on paper, wait till we see it in full moving picture magic!

Inception

Okay back to being a total geek. Which geek did not squeal at the fact that Nolan would be making a summer blockbuster and would be including pretty much the entire cast of Batman Begins in it? (except for the goddamn Batman and Liam-fucking-Neeson themselves) I definitely did. And it's even better that he casted Ellen Page (JUNO, nuff' said) and one of my absolute favorites Joseph-Gordon Levitt (from 500 Days of Summer).

I only have a snapshot of what the whole movie is about, the inception of dreams into people's heads. Which can be summed up in one word: MINDFUCK. Needless to say Christopher Nolan is a total genius, I am a fan of his work, and how he brilliantly executed the last two Batman movies and making them into possibly one of the most memorable movie sagas (and this is just based on the last two Batman movies, and not the ones from the 80s/90s).

And music by my favorite composer of all time: HANS ZIMMER. I was not disappointed by his Batman scores, but I know where fans are coming from when they say it's a recycle of the score from The Da Vinci Code. But if you go to Inception's official score website, and just play the music, holy hell it's a bloody earworm. I'm starting to love it already.

Okay fine so I know it's out, I just haven't gone to watch it yet. But I will, geewhilickers.

The Last Airbender

Right. I'm not really psyched about this one anymore. I'm just plain worried. I was an avid follower of Avatar: The Last Airbender till it ended its run on air in 2008, and when I heard about the upcoming movie...of course I was concerned. I am a huge fan after all. How huge?

That's how huge. And I didn't even buy it (I was going to), my non-nerd friends bought it for me for my 19th birthday. THAT'S RIGHT. 19TH.

I wrote this post in 2008: Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, and this one in 2009: I miss my music + Teaser trailer. The former was about my doubt and concern over the choice of director for this movie and the seemingly (seemingly?) racist casting, and the latter about my coming-to-terms with these choices and about how the teaser trailer looked really cool.

I saw that the movie was trending on Twitter, and everyone was saying how it sucked so bad, it came out of a wazoo. I have pretty much lost all faith. It started with M. Night Shyamalan being announced as director, then the racist casting. After a few recent movie blunders, Shyamalan returns to us and does it again by horribly miscasting what is supposed to look like a majority Asian cast with obviously white Caucasian people and doing the white=hero, anything else=villain thing by making the Fire Nation ambiguously brown (and Katara and Sokka, who are originally brown goodguys, white).

Yes I do understand the Avatar universe is an alternate universe where different races are not specified. But colors are, and sometimes you have to do things the proper way to execute it excellently (especially if you have hordes of fanboys and fangirls scrutinizing your every move). White people doing kungfu movies; not like it's never been done before, but how many people can be Chuck Norris? Imagine the hopes of hundreds of Asian actors (or Asian American if you want to be specific) who already have established careers in Holywood, crushed by this racist casting? And it's not like the actors picked for the movie were actually good.

In fact, Roger Ebert said they were horrendous. And I believe Roger Ebert, even if sometimes I disagree with him. Because being a loyal fan of something, you have the power of foresight when it comes to certain things, this being one of them. And we knew it was gonna suck. We tried to blanket our doubts with hope and faith. But it seems our faith may be lost.

Now I am just going to watch this movie for the sake of it being Avatar, and on the account of I'm-such-a-huge-fan. I plan to bring brain bleach. LOTS OF IT.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

MAJOR EDIT:

I just found out that Abbers has blogged about her movie-anxiety as well, and there's a whole lot more movies in there too! Check it out at her blog Marzipan Mojo and Chop Suey.

Also, who's going to MTV World Stage? I heard that if I blogged about it I might get tickets from Nuffnang. Wait, there is no contest? Darn.

Oh well, here are the details anyway. Even if I did win tickets, I wouldn't be able to go. D8

MTV World Stage
Date: 31 July 2010
Time: 6pm
Venue: Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach

Tokio Hotel, Bunkface, Katy Perry and The Wondergirls will be there. Not fancying the lineup much save for Tokio Hotel's older stuff, but would be fun. Dudes and dudettes, check this out.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay so I'm done being a nerd. Here are some other movies I'm waiting for.

FUCK YEAH RYAN REYNOLDS AS HAL JORDAN. Do I love Hal!Green Lantern?

Yes, very.

And there's no movie poster for this yet but we all know it's coming, it's inevitable.

This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. (MAJOR PICTURE POST)

2010-07-08T09:17:00.001-07:00

No I am not joining the US Marines. I just thought the Rifleman's Creed sounded cool as a title. But the day had come. The day where I would step into a Singaporean con in full costume. I'd only ever been to a Singaporean con once before Cosfest last weekend. I was not cosplaying then of course, and I was actually gauging the quality of the event and cosplayers. I guess comparing Start of Year 2010 to Malaysia's own Comic Fiesta was a bit farfetched, seeing as I walked through SOY in like 10 minutes. But boy did Cosfest prove me wrong. It's still not as big an event as CF, but Singaporean cosplayers really are something.

So hoping to be on par with the local folk, I decided to pull, by far my greatest and most daring cosplay ever.

I decided to do Yoko from one of my favorite anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. And I'm pretty proud of myself. Including the rifle, I made about 50% of it, the tailor making about 10% and Wei Ling making the other 40%. Okay so I know I didn't make all of it. Do I look at least 90% accurate?

I really need to buy Wei Ling some lunch one day. She literally was my personal assistant when I was at Cosfest. Thanks for all the help babe.

I think I did pretty well and I'm very proud of myself. I have never been mobbed by so many photographers before at any con. Not even in my Soul Eater group in CF08, or as Lelouch Lamperouge in AVCon 2010.

See what I mean?

And the amount in this photo was considerably a small amount. And I assume it's because I did well, photographers took more notice of me. One requested I took a photo with a doll dressed up like Yoko.

Obviously, she's got bigger bazongas than I do.

I ended up meeting some really great photographers, who took really nice photos of me. Like Usagi/Hexlord, the one I keep hearing about, and whose photos I keep seeing all over the place. He even took some of our Soul Eater group back in 2008. Of all the photos of Yoko!me I've seen so far, Usagi took the best ones!

I love how my rifle looks in photos. This was my first time making a prop and I worried so much about how much I would fuck it up. But I didn't. Many people commented on my rifle during the con, and I'm very satisfied. Which is weird, when people ask me what it was made of, they always assume wood or metal, but I only made it out of plastic bottles, craft foam, a PVC pipe and cardboard. And when they pick it up, they usually make remarks like "Oh it's real light!"

Doesn't it look cool, y'know, being all shiny and firearm-like?

Needless to say I had to practice posing with it since I have never worked with a prop before. I also practiced my expressions. My cosplays before this involved a lot of ear-to-ear smiling, or just being plain deadpan. Now I just had to snark.

And snark I did. This is my "I'm gonna fuck you up something fierce" look.

I found four other Gurren Lagann cosplayers that day. The first is Sue Lyn as General Adiane the Elegant, and the second was Alex as Prisoner!Viral. I made two new Gurren Lagann cosplayer friends! The thing was it was hard to pose with them sometimes cos they were bad guys and I was a big damn heroine. Creative failure on my part. The other two I did not manage to get their names, were as Groom!Simon and Bride!Nia, and gosh they were adorable.

"Okay on three, you tear her into pieces."

"But Mistress Adiane, my hands are tied up."

"No buts."

"I CAN HEAR YOU OVER HERE!!"

On the second day of Cosfest, I went as Yoko again, but in her least recognizable costume: the uniform she wore in the "Kirameki Yoko! Pieces of Sweet S.t.a.r.S" video.

"Thank you for flying Dai Gurren Dan Air. Kindly make your way to the exits in an orderly fashion, so that you do not explode from excessive Spiral energy left in the cabin."

I even have a little Boota plushie to go with the costume. I bought him in my favorite nerd store Shin Tokyo back in Adelaide last year for my little sister, but she just dumped him into her toy box. He's lucky I found him.

I wanted him to put him in between my boobs, where he likes it, when I wore my bikini but my boobs weren't big enough. Cosplay FAIL.

This was the day my friend (who I met in Melbourne) Auggie, would make his cosplay debut as Lelouch Lamperouge of Code Geass! I lent him the wig I used when I did Lelouch last year.

I met up with Sky, Cappy (Aisyah for those of you reading who might know her), Kamal and Dai on both days, but only ended up taking most photos with them on Day 2.

Me with Sky as Beatrice from Umineko and Caps as Sheryl Nome from the Macross Frontier movie.

We hung out at Burger King a whole lot. I think the business there boomed those two days.

Kamal in his Starry Sky uniform and Dai as one of the Siesta Sisters from Umineko, both playing with Boota.

This is Allen, famous for his Captain Jack Sparrow costume. I heard so much about him from other cosplayer friends, and he is also a friend of my close friend Swee Wei's. I finally introduced myself to him.

Remember my friend Alex who cosplayed Prisoner!Viral on Day 1? ~~She~~ He makes a mighty mean Egon Spengler. I totally dig the mohawk.

Speaking of Alex, we both found out that the day we decide not to wear our Gurren Lagann costumes (well, I was, but it was not Yoko's default costume), and on the day Sue Lyn (Adiane) goes back to KL, the two most GAR Gurren Lagann cosplayers decide to show up. I didn't catch their names, but it was this girl playing pre-timeskip Simon and this dude playing post-timeskip GARLOCK Simon. I still managed to take a picture with them and lent little Simon Boota to put on his shoulder!

Doesn't help that Garlock Simon is totally hot too. Damn.

THE GURREN LAGANN GROUP WOULD HAVE BEEN SO AWESOME. If only we knew which day each of us would be dressing up. *FAIL*

And finally a picture of me with my little sister Iron-Nerd Ashley and her little Japanese friend Yuu-tan!

All in all, my first major Singaporean con was a blast, I learned a lot and I made many new friends! I can't wait to go for AFA.

See you guys there!

Photo credits go to MinZhui, Usagi/Hexlord, Inferno, SJVizuals, Rin, UBG, TheBanzaiEffect, Adrian Seah and Wei Ling. :)

I didn't budge from a chair for 3 hours because I was getting professional hair styling...for my wig. (Picture post ahead~!)

2010-06-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

Remember my cosplay teaser post "What do you do with a red bikini, a pair of white boots and a meter of black stretchable PVC?" Well Cosfest is next weekend and I have been doing nothing but immersing myself in my cosplay efforts over the past week and this one (and the next too).

So I went to pick up my wig from Costar today. Costar takes orders for wigs from Singaporean buyers and gets these high quality wigs shipped from Taiwan. The prices are quite reasonable (especially if you're buying really long ones, the price increment from buying short ones aren't that huge) and the first styling is free!
I am cosplaying these two versions of Yoko (default and S.t.a.r.S.) from Gurren Lagann, which means...lots of red hair...and A PONYTAIL.

Costar has a catalogue of different wig lengths and styles in different colors. They had hairpieces too, which I figured I could get for Yoko's default ponytail. But they didn't come in red.

So needless to say some styling was in need.

Here's me in the high chair in front of the mirror, very excited to have my ~~hair~~ wig styling done.

Don't forget to keep your hair in the wig cap! Even the littlest of stray hairs can change the entire look!

First wig styling, which is S.t.a.r.S. version Yoko's wig. Since Yoko has her hair down for this costume, not much styling was needed but to shorten the sideburn parts. That lady is the one running the Costar business. I feel horrible for not remembering her name.

Second wig for default Yoko. I ordered a really long one so they could have creative liberties when making the ponytail. Doesn't help that Yoko's hair is really really long.

Wei Ling came with me for the styling to observe ~~and be my translator~~, so she helped a little too.
I did emphasize that you have to keep your hair under the wig cap the whole time, but the hairstylist lady did it very loosely for me so yeah. But this is what it looks like sideways.

Here's the final look! I thought it looked fine, but Wei Ling insisted that the rubber band be covered, so she tried to fix that.

And voila! I think it looks pretty neat. I hope I can get it to look like this on the day itself, without Costar's help.

I'm going all out for this one. After all I am in the capital of the SouthEast Asian cosplay industry. I need to at least put more effort. I'm making my own props, I'm sewing, I'm painting, hell I even bought fake eyelashes.

All so I can look GAR on Cosfest. WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?!

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START.

2010-06-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

Just because we use cheats, it doesn't mean we're not smart.

I love chatting with Abby online. Because we're just nerds. She is by far the coolest most righteous 15-year old ever. And when we get together our nerd-power is over 9000. So this is what geek-speak looks like.

Our excuse for the Batman topics was because this pretty much happened after we both read the giant-sized Batman #700 anniversary issue. Which is time mindfuck. But still pretty awesome.

Thank you Batman for giving us 700 issues of kick-ass-ery to spoil us geeks. And thanks Abbers for being that girlfriend every female nerd needs amongst her networks of non-nerd friends.

P.S. Before chatting with her, I have never kept the Caps Lock on for so long in a single conversation. It happens as often as my conversations with her.

P.P.S. The "Hanna" she was referring to in the last screencap is {Hanna Falk Cross} (squiggly brackets of WIN) of the epic webcomic Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name by the woman born of the gods, Tessa Stone. Check it out, it's pretty fuckin' neat.

Amy Avenue is looking like a dream.

2010-06-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

So a lot of my friends ask me what I do at work. Some of them can't remember who I work for. Some of them say I should get "a real job".

When you think of those organizations that are most known for their names being an acronym, it usually means shit is about to go down with the government. Like the CIA or the IRS. When people hear either one of these they start to shit their pants (the CIA for obvious reasons and the IRS for...when you don't file your taxes). But, I do not work for any of the above. I don't even work in the United States.

I work for the IDA, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. Not as cool as it sounds though heh, at least not for an artsy fartsy person like me. This is the ICT wing of the government. They made Wireless @ SG. Yeah, next time you tap into the free wifi in Singapore, think about where it came from.

My position in the company is temporary project coordinator. I am in charge of all matters concerning the National Infocomm Awards 2010, as I collect and make nominations for the awards, answer all queries from potential nominators/nominees on email and through the phone, liaise with our co-organizers, basically anything that has to do with the NIA, they call me.

My name and phone number is even on the Contact Us page of the official website. Booyah.

Okay so it's not the kind of job I wanted, but it's a start. In a way it's event/project organization so it's kind of in the line of what I am supposed to do. Also, the job market wasn't giving me any slack. IDA pays well, and is a well-recognized government agency. If people weren't hiring me then, they'd prolly hire me now that I have something really substantial to add to my resume. Like really really substantial. It's the ID-fucking-A! (is what I've been hearing people tell me a lot, though not in a literal sense)

People here are nice too. Most of them are not born of my generation, but they are still very nice and very helpful. And those who are of my generation are probably my anti-anxiety pills, namely David and Pei Jen who are about the same age as I am, and can never really decide on what to eat for lunch.

So my day at work consists of sitting at my desk answering emails and phone calls, checking for duplicates and flaws in the nominations and keeping track of all the nominations. So, please don't be surprised if I'm online on Meebo, I am doing my work, it's just not heavy-duty...YET. Once the deadline for nominations close I'm pretty much floored like HQ on a Wednesday night.

Jacqkie, Kerry, Denise, Sweei, Jeffrey and others back home are keeping me company while I'm at work, and keeping me updated with whatever's going on home in KL. I agree sometimes I do seem like I'm bored cos' I am. If nobody calls asking questions, or if nobody sends in any new nominations, then I'm practically free. So if you have the time to spare and you see me online, send an IM my way. I'm more than happy to oblige.

The best thing about work? Getting paid. I promised myself a shopping spree every month after getting my salary and paying the credit card and phone bills. I just spent the past two weekends buying stuff. Like SGD21 worth of art supplies for my cosplay (including spray paint and a glue gun) and about SGD140 on clothes (mostly from Cotton On and Forever 21). I've also drabbled in some online shopping, ordering David Choi's second album and a limited edition Jo Chen comic book (I've been a huge fan of both these talented people for a long time)

The fun bit about work? CASUAL FRIDAYS. And I can wear whatever the hell I want.

Yeah well, a creative spirit trapped in a less creative workplace needs to express her flair one way or another am I right?

JUBILATIONS!!

2010-06-07T17:57:00.000-07:00

David Choi is back after being suspended from Youtube for about a week!!

It was uncalled for, because if he was suspended for singing covers, the world need not express their creativity and musical passion anymore. Might as well curl up in a fetal position and wait for the end days to come.

I decided to show my support by posting encouraging comments (though he probably missed it as it was lost in the mass of follower comments) and buy his album "By My Side" (it should be arriving in the mail soon!)

Take that, executive-meddling-in-wrong-places.

Sunday morning rain is falling

2010-06-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

Konnichiwa.

A kiss with the fist is better than none

2010-05-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

I am not going to lie, what I'm about to say will probably hurt or piss of a lot of people.

Everytime I return to Malaysia, for the very short 'each time', I look forward to hanging out with these guys the most (after my dad, Eric, the dogs and Kak Yuni though).

And my mom asked "Aren't you tired of seeing them?" (with no ill intentions of course). And I gave her a goofy laugh and said "Noooo..." She probably thought I wasn't being serious. But I was.

I know I spend a little too much time with them, but I can't help it. I ALWAYS have an AMAZING time with them. No matter what we're doing. Whether it's having drinks at a mamak, playing Captain-ball in a swimming pool with a tennis ball, whether it's just staying in and playing silly punishment games. And I am always most comfortable around them. I always feel loved around them, and my returns to Malaysia are always welcomed with open arms (and boob squeezes).

I also will not lie that I try my best to make time for them, and I get insanely jealous when I know I cannot be at whatever hoedown they're at that I cannot attend.

I will try to spend more time with other friends and family the next times I come down. I PROMISE. However, I still guarantee spending at least an hour or two with these jokers every time I get back. I've just been so overwhelmed recently.

I won't do short road trips though. I don't have time for that. And I will prefer it if we don't club. I don't mind pubs. Not very much them expensive bar/lounges, but more low-key pubs with lots of cheap beer on tap. And some live music. I just like a place with lots of ambience, so we can talk. I like talking and catching up, and I can't do that if I have to yell whilst having alcohol. Last time that happened, I caught laryngitis. AFTER recovering from a first attack of laryngitis I caught doing about the same thing.

In other words, I don't want you to catch laryngitis too. Call me.

I'm in a world apart, a world where roses bloom

2010-05-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

You know how people always say you should be yourself? Yeah, how are you doing with that?

I spent the whole Sunday afternoon in before returning to Singapore. In between replaying Trololo over and over again in my head, watching The Nanny Diaries, and rushing a comic page to scan before leaving, I had time for critical thinking. And I think it was watching The Nanny Diaries that triggered this train of thought. Annie Braddock didn't know who she was. I wasn't sure I knew who I was either.

I had a quick thought about it last weekend and I realized that I might not be myself at all. Or at least I am, but only sometimes. I don't know, I'm probably giving people a million opportunities to jump at me going "POSER!" right about now. I don't know.

It's just you have different faces you put on for different people I guess. It's the same for everyone in that sense. You're a goody-two-shoes at work, but when you're not at work, you're a wild child. But my situation is of a different extent.

As everyone does, I have different cliques/networks of friends. And I wonder what they think of me. Maybe to one group, I seem smarter, but to another, no smarter than they are (maybe less smart). To one group, I may seem streetwise, like I know a lot about the world, but to another, I am just naive. Maybe I seem fearless to one group, but to another I seem straight and prude. I might come off as impulsive to one group, and rational to another. One group knows certain things about me that other groups may not. And I am afraid of what they’ll think of me if I let them know.

Because I notice it, especially during birthdays. On the same birthday, I received a halter top from WH, an Avatar Aang action figure, a set of neck and ear pearl jewellery, and a Devil May Cry best hits soundtrack. They are all things I love. But if one group buys me a particular thing, hoping that I would be the happiest with their present, another group probably thinks the same of a totally, and very different item they bought me.

Maybe one group likes me a lot, maybe one doesn't really?

If I told some groups certain things about me, I think they would be surprised. Not so much in a bad way whatsoever, but more like a "I didn't know that about you!" way.

Do I have many faces? I'd like to think that I am not trying to be a particular somebody, like a favorite celebrity or an idol or something in front of my friends, but more as adapting to different groups with different interests. You know, make like a chameleon and blend?

Are others in the same situation? Or am I the only one who's different in front of different people? Or is it because the people I am around are so different in comparison, that my usual self gets put onto different sides of the spectrum at these different times I am in their company?

How am I around you guys? You guys might not be able to make comparisons because you may not have seen me around other people, but I'd like to know what you think. Then I can make comparisons for myself. I'd like to see the different answers people come up with. And to what extent they are different.

Is this the Audrey "ItoMaki" Chan that you know?

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 04 - Of getting presents when it's not your birthday

2010-05-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

Malaysians (me included) really love free stuff. This video was done as a thank you for all the wonderful gifts I've been receiving without occasion! I feel so loved. I wanted to include other presents I got over the time since graduation, like two hats I received from both Jeffrey and my mom, a pair of new sunnies from my mom, and 3 pairs of colored contacts from Aisyah for cosplay (though I didn't get these for free, I ordered them through her but still, receiving them made my day).

Songs used:

The Winner by Mychael Danna & DeVotchKa (off The Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack)
California Gurls (Katy Perry cover) by David Choi
War Machine by AC/DC (off their Black Ice album)
Stand Up by The Prodigy (off the Kick-Ass soundtrack)

Visit:

Evita Nuh's blog.
David Choi's website for free mp3 downloads of his music and his Youtube page.
Two Stroke Johnny's Myspace page and their Facebook page.

So coming up next I'll have the last two parts of my Adelaide trip and a video log of when Denise and Shaneil came to visit Singapore! And yes, thank you to all my new readers and followers, a little bird called Nuffnang told me that a lot of you are coming from Indonesia. Thank you for the love guys!

P.S. I totally forgot, someone suggested I speak in the Australian accent when I requested for suggestions of accents to do. Just for the fun of it. I did not use it in this one as I was pressed for time, and my Australian accent takes some practising (my English accent is better D8) so I will in a future vlog. 8D

What's in my pocket? You never knew.

2010-05-10T00:54:00.000-07:00

I got my first paycheck last week. I mean my first actual paycheck as an official working person, and not a small intern rate or anything. It's pro-rated though, since I joined in halfway through April, but converted to Ringgit, it's still more than what I would make in a month in Malaysia, so no complains there.

So I went shopping last weekend. On Saturday, I went shopping for cosplay materials and stuff. It really makes me feel at home when you're in a fabric shop and there are tons of other teenagers/young adults carrying folders of anime references into the shop looking for fabrics in colors similar to that of the characters' clothings. I don't feel like an extra-terrestrial.

Then on Sunday, I went out to buy some art supplies and a gift for Mother's Day. Mom was in Malaysia and explicitly told me not to buy anything for her. Sigh, don't they know that kids rebel? So I bought the supplies, but I also bought myself some new makeup brushes from Sephora. Of course more expensive than your usual drug-store makeup brushes, but cheaper than a lot of the more branded ones I saw. A set of 4 or 5 Bobbi Brown brushes goes for RM700. I got 5 brushes for SGD125. It would've been better if they came in sets but the best part about having to pick your own brushes is that you can pick the right brush for the kind of makeup you use.

Then when I entered Zara, I saw this really really cute skirt that I liked. I picked out something for my mom, and I tried the skirt. And the skirt just made me look next-level awesome. But when I proceeded to the counter and I took out my credit card, I felt something.

YES. It's the pain you get when you spend too much of your hard-earned money. Well not hard-earned, but it pains me to know that my salary will be going to my credit card bills, utility bills and my phone bills. I guess this is what it means to start getting your shit together and be responsible. So I did not buy the skirt. It was too much money spent in one day.

Maybe next week.

What do you do with a red bikini, a pair of white boots and a meter of black stretchable PVC?

2010-05-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

Ooooohhhhh yeah. Shit is going down. Eat rifle cartridges.

"Back in Adelaide" Day 4 (GRADUATION!)

2010-05-04T19:24:00.000-07:00

The third video in the 5-part "Back in Adelaide" series! It's a long video since there was a lot of stuff I wanted to include. Like I said a few posts before. Part 3 is gonna be the bomb, and it is!! Flashdance Graduation Party!!

Songs used:

Mack the Knife
Bad Bad Leroy Brown

By the wonderful fabulous Frank Sinatra. God bless his soul and give him all the jazz numbers he could ever want in Heaven.

Okay so I'll try to be more active in the blogging/video blogging business since I did say I would make "Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings" as regular as possible. The best thing about my work is that I don't ever bring work home with me, which leaves me plenty of nothing to do at home (though time is not abundant). I have finished my major commissions, and between my smaller commissions and working on my own webcomic projects, I'm pretty much free. So I will try. You will see more of me in future.

Thanks to everyone who's been following my blog, and thanks to those who have just started following. I will try to churn out more interesting things to read/watch in future.

Here's a starter. I've had an idea for a video log for a long time, and want to see if you guys support it. It's honestly just for laughs.

In what accent would you like me to speak in a future video? I have thought of Malaysian (like, I will try really hard), Japanese, English or Australian. Do you guys have any more ideas? Please do tell me! Hit comment so I know!

Toodles!

An FYI of sorts

2010-05-03T23:52:00.000-07:00

With some magic speed potion and a little less drowsiness, part 3 of the 5 part-series "Back in Adelaide" will be up tonight, or at least tomorrow morning. Wish on a star folks!

In these deep city lights, a girl could get lost tonight.

2010-04-29T07:13:00.000-07:00

Feeling a bit under the weather. I miss Malaysia. Thank God I'm going home tomorrow. Work is still slow, and I'm overreacting about how much I don't understand what the company is about. But I'm allowed a bout of insanity once in a while. I miss it when nobody has anything to say about whatever it is I do. I miss it when people take notice of my little quirks, like when I stick my tongue out before taking a straw into my mouth. I miss being on my own. I am jealous when I hear of my friends hanging out together and I know I can't be there.

I realize I am a hypocrite.

I miss freedom.

"Did you see the sky today? Talk about blue."

There's Stars in my Eyes and There's Sun in my Hair

2010-04-24T06:34:00.000-07:00

Remember the darling giveaway that darling Evita Nuh held recently that I advertised about on my blog?

Well she recently announced who won her giveaway items.

Do my eyes deceive me?

I love her to bits. I will show it to you guys once it arrives!!

Isn't she just a DOLL?

Forget all your technicolor dreams, forget modern nature, this is how it's meant to be.

2010-04-19T07:13:00.000-07:00

My How To Train Your Dragon obsession has evolved into a Jay Baruchel obsession (pink for effect). I have a huge huge Humongosaur crush on this guy. He is goofy, dorky, but at the same time, smart, charming, oh-so-adorable and he's such a sweetheart.

Hollywood needs more guys like him. In fact, he's the next big thing. Like, "kick-Shia-Lebeouf-to-the-curb" big. And I feel stupid for watching him in 3 movies (Knocked Up, Million Dollar Baby and Tropic Thunder) and not even noticing he was there. Shame on me. But How To Train Your Dragon opened my eyes, and now, I wanna see all of him.

I'm behind you all the way Jay. I haven't been this in love since Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who I'm still stalking on Twitter by the way).

So I'm just wondering, we see all these geek/nerd characters in Hollywood, usually male. Where are the girls? We need more geek girls.

I mean, if I could be a dork and earn tons of money acting in movies with another dork as cute as Jay...

...where the hell do I sign up?

Oh and I think Christopher Mintz-Plasse aka McLovin...

...totally kicks ass. Abbie totally agrees with me. Yeah us nerd-girls totally have it for the nerd-boys.

Get it? Kick-ass? Like the movie? I slay me.

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 03 - Of decorating rooms and dragon training

2010-04-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

Yay I managed to get a new VLog episode this week. I decided to try videoing from my camera instead of my Mac, and from new angles because my room has nasty lighting at night.

So yes, new VLog of my decorated room and my new obsession How To Train Your Dragon. I can be pretty geeky, I haven't changed at all in so many years.

Songs used:

I used three songs from the soundtrack of How To Train Your Dragon, composed by John Powell. Most compelling score I've heard in a long while.

Forbidden Friendship - The beautiful music they played when Hiccup and Toothless started to forge their bond.
See You Tomorrow - The music they played during the scenes of Hiccup's double-life.
Test Drive - Undoubtedly the best song on the score. Played when Hiccup and Toothless went on their flying test drive. Cinematic music at its finest.

You can check out some of other John Powell's scores, on Youtube or whatever. Try searching for the Face/Off song Homecoming. It is gorgeous.

This marks John Powell's entrance into my list of favorite composers (alongside my favorite Hans Zimmer, I have Alan Menken, James Horner, John Williams and Danny Elfman).

Literally if I could make an equasion of what this score sounds like, it would be like this:

Indiana Jones + Pocahontas + Braveheart + The Patriot + Gladiator + Beyond Rangoon + The Lord of the Rings = How To Train Your Dragon

Now if I checked correctly John Powell has never been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score. I think this year that is about to change.

I'd say a lot more about this movie (it is so good, undoubtedly one of the best animated films ever made in the past 5 years) but I'm just gonna leave it here since I'd have to write a 5-page long review about the movie. Yes, it's that good. If the 3D or music is not reason enough, then Hiccup and Toothless will win it for everyone. Well, maybe I might just write one, regardless.

Oh, and I snagged the bits of the trailer off IGN.com.

Also I heard Dragon's 3D kicks Avatar's 3D ass to the curb and that Clash of the Titans's 3D just sucked balls.

She killed it with kisses, and from it she fled.

2010-04-10T02:49:00.000-07:00

So I'm here to do a little blog promotion. Not mine, but Evita Nuh's ♥The crème de la crop♥. This little 11 year-old darling has more style than I could ever put on at 21 years of age.

Please take a look at her blog. She posts up pictures of the looks she puts together, and I am so envious of her choice in clothing. She's adorable. A mini stylo-milo. I love how she cleverly mixes vintage with modern indie. And her photography is pretty top-notch too.

Well anyways, Evita is having a little giveaway and she's asking her readers to help promote it. I love her blog to bits, and although I want all of the stuff she showed on her blog to myself, helping her spread the word is the least I could do for a girl of such greatness.

This is just some of the many accessories and items she's packed up (in cute neat little gift packages too!) to giveaway to her readers! (I want either one of these wrist accessories, they're so cute.)

Go to this link, to stand a chance in winning one of her little prizes!!

In other news, remember my red hat, the one that I lost when returning from Adelaide?

For graduation, Jeffrey got me a new one as a present! It's not exactly the same though, this one is looser and longer, more like a beanie, but it's still pretty awesome!

I am reunited once again with my little red hat.

"Back in Adelaide" Part 2 of 5 - Days 2 and 3

2010-04-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

Part 2 of my 5-part video log series of my adventures back to Adelaide for graduation. I had to squeeze Days 2 and 3 into one video since I didn't have much material to work with. I promise, Part 3 is gonna be the bomb. Three words,

FLASHDANCE GRADUATION PARTY.

Music used:

Don't Look Back
Ridin' In My Car

Both by She & Him from their new album Volume Two, which I ordered from Amazon, YAY!

Daydreamer, sitting on the seat, soaking up the sun.

2010-04-07T00:15:00.000-07:00

Got back from Adelaide last weekend. Missing it and all my beloved friends I left behind. Spent some precious quality time with mom.

Spent some time with dad after getting back and before he returned to KL. He's officially become a gLeek.

Denise and Shaneil were in town for Easter. They bunked at my place for two nights and we went about town, eating extremely-deep-fried food and picking up guitar cables, and a wah-wah pedal from a 15 year-old schoolkid. That and I caught a cold from them.

I also thank Glen Keane for giving the world Pocahontas, and Tom Fucile for the very much ignored Disney heroine Esmeralda.

Also, Christian Bale? Hot.

Oh edit: Look what arrived in the mail whilst I was away!

I AM ONE HAPPY CAMPER YES I AM. I spazzed when I saw the video for the first single on Channel V.

"Back in Adelaide" Part 1 of 5 - Day 1

2010-04-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

A 5-part video log series of my adventures back to Adelaide for graduation.

I apologize if the subtitles appear too small or just disappear at the end since I might have embedded the video too big for the content body of my blog. Blogger just makes my video too small, so that's out of the question.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the way I speak, this is where you can hear my Malaysian accent because I am speaking with my very close Malaysian friends. There will be another part where I spoke in my (seemingly) American accent with my Aussie friends (force of habit, I can't help it, again I blame TV) coming soon. Also in the same part, Rachel does her Russian/Scottish and Indian accent.

Music used:

L'amoureuse
Ma Jeunesse

Both by French First Lady Carla Bruni from her Comme si de rien n'était album.

Update.

2010-04-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

Working on a video log of my adventure back deown undah. For once I have new characters, and not just me being in the video. I am still in Adelaide by the way, I'm leaving in a couple of hours. I'm gonna miss this place so much.

Oh one thing.

Leveled up bitches.

American Woman, mama let me be.

2010-03-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

I have a sudden need or want to go back to the 70s. Maybe I'll throw a 70s theme party for my 21st birthday. How's that sound people?

I'm hitting Adelaide on the morning of the 28th for graduation on the 30th. Biggest memory-making event of my life so far is about to unfold.

I hope those memories look like this.

Scooch over for a bit will ya?

2010-03-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

Interview tomorrow morning. Mom says website seems dodgy since most parts of it have an "updating soon" status, but it's an advertising company so no harm checking it out since I applied for the position.

Trip back to Malaysia was short and rushed but very eventful. I enjoyed it very much. Spent the time with friends and family, loads of fun!

I'm also the girl with the shark-tooth and seashell earrings now.

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 02 - Of douchebag employers in bleep Communications.

2010-03-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

I think I'm getting the hang of this video logging thing. I'm getting less camera-shy, I can talk for longer intervals without having to crop and attach most parts of my speech. I'm speaking louder, and annunciating properly. I've loosened up more and am no longer as quiet and stiff.

The lighting in my room still sucks though.

Songs used:

Dan In Real Life - Sondre Lerche (Dan In Real Life)
Up The Spout - Mateo Messina (Juno)
Auditor - Britt Daniel & Brian Reitzell (Stranger Than Fiction)
Light My Fire - Hans Zimmer & Lorne Balfe (The Holiday)
Family Theme - Sondre Lerche (Dan In Real Life)
Rollercoaster - Kimya Dawson (Juno)
Flours - Britt Daniel & Brian Reitzell (Stranger Than Fiction)
Definitely Unexpected - Hans Zimmer & Lorne Balfe (The Holiday)

Decided to try soundtrack/instrumental music cos' life is a musical. 8D But uh I ended up having a hard time to pick since I didn't have many soundtrack albums with me, and the tracks are usually very short.

Well, I'm slowly working on cutting my videos shorter, so hopefully in future this won't be a problem.

Totally pointless post, I don't even know why--Y'guys watch the Community Channel on Youtube?

2010-03-09T08:45:00.001-08:00

This place is getting quiet isn't it? And the last comment about anything on my blog was about my boobs. Thanks Yuen.

8D It's okay, I'm not Natalie Tran or anything.

And speaking of Natalie Tran, I love this girl. WAI SO AWSM? I just found her on Youtube like about 3 weeks ago when Edlin (aka BEAT) posted a link to her Bad Loser video on my Facebook saying that "Is this you? LOL She looks like you." HAH. No, I'm not nearly as awesome. And NO I LOOK NOTHING LIKE HER. Go watch her Thought It Was You video. (Also doesn't help that I've only met BEAT once in person, so I can see where the confusion came about. But dude, you have me on Facebook. D8)

And I just spent like the past 4 hours catching up on all her old videos (whilst finishing my manga pages and looking for jobs online), and I'm still not done.

I think I'm about the only person who says nice things about her, and openly admits that I love her. 8D Call me.

Also Abigail or Cheesy McCheeserton and I are working on a little webcomic thing. It's still in the making, and we still need to figure out some things (like the mechanics of who gets to draw and who gets to write) cos we're BOTH in this together. We've so far come up with like the premise of the story and a couple of characters. If you all didn't know, I am already working on my own webcomic, but I will not show you where it is on the net, because it's about gay people and I am embarrassed. I told you this post was pointless.

Also also, PARAMORE was so good, I don't even know what to say because I don't want to use the word awesome again. I use it too many times. Hmm. Okay here goes, PARAMORE was "Legen--wait for it--dary.".

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 01 - Of Saosin and my little friends

2010-03-01T09:21:00.000-08:00

I changed the name of the show from "Me and My Bottlecap Earrings" to "Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings", for a weirder cuter name.

I am going to forgo Part 2 of my 2009 video recap because I no longer have the mood to do it. Whatever, 2009 was too good to be summed up in a 10 minute video.

Decided to experiment with fonts. My iMovie application has limited features. Yay for the Scarface reference (I've always wanted to do this), and also for Napoleon Dynamite badges.

Songs used:

To Be Surprised - Sondre Lerche (off the Dan In Real Life soundtrack)
Coin Laundry - Lisa Mitchell
Piazza, New York Catcher - Belle & Sebastian (off the Juno soundtrack)

K-On/Passionfruit Mango Orange flavored Tea please.

2010-02-24T20:58:00.000-08:00

It's Day 2 of my new life in Singapore and I wake up to an empty apartment. Mom's at work and Ash is at school. I'm supposed to head out later to get my lunch and my new tablet. But first, I want to have something light for breakfast.

While unpacking and getting acquainted to my room last night, I opened up a drawer and realized that the stuff I bought from SOY '10 (Start of Year cosplay event) last month had been lying around since I did not bring them home to Malaysia with me.

Included was a pack of 5 K-On tea bags I bought from Knightcat's booth. I have always been a fan of Knightcat's stuff, always buying merchandise during Comic Fiestas.

Here they are!

They come in 5 Twinings (OMG I LOVE TWININGS) flavors which are...

Hirasawa Yui in Four Red Fruits, Nakano Azusa in Peach, Akiyama Mio in Blackcurrant, Kotobuki Tsumugi in Passionfruit, Mango and Orange, and Tainaka Ritsu in Lemon!

Okay so I feel like ~~devouring~~ having Tsumugi tea today. Take them out of their little packets and you have....

Your Twinings tea-bag and a little picture card you get to keep/stick on something/put in your wallet/etc! Put the tea bag in your favorite mug, add water and......

Enjoy your K-On Kotobuki Tsumugi Passionfruit Mango Orange flavored tea! Seriously there should be a K-On-inspired menu.

I'm sorry, I was bored, hungry and they were so cute, I just had to make this post. Tomorrow, I'll have ~~MOE~~ MIO tea.

A compilation of sorts.

2010-02-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

Driving the new car is like riding a bike downhill. Easy, and thus, a hazard. That, and it's huge, and a trip down some very very narrow roads to Jacqkie's place nearly killed my nerves.
The title for my video log-show will be Me and my Bottlecap Earrings, and the first episode will be about Saosin experience.
I am deeply in love with indie folk and rock right now. I have recently decided the best thing to come out of Australia is Lisa Mitchell. Her Coin Laundry has been stuck in my head for a whole week, and is the first track on my Indie mixed tape (OKAY it's not really a tape, it's a CD, even I'm not that vintage!). I haven't been so hooked to something since Zooey Deschanel. Also, after watching Dan In Real Life for the first time, I immediately got the soundtrack and I assure you, it is the yummiest album treat for me since the soundtrack for (500) Days of Summer.
I wanted Two Stroke Johnny to play around my graduation so badly, so I could go see them when I go back to Adelaide. I wished and wished, and they came up with a gig on the 27th of March.
I think I've done something bad recently because God seems to want to punish me. All the flights before and after the 27th seem to be either too rushed, or too early, or too expensive. Thus I will only be flying in on the night of the 27th.
Fuck this shit.
And I also realized that I won't be able to see Imogen Heap play in Singapore because it's too close to graduation. She has an Australian tour around the same time I will be there, but she's not stopping by Adelaide (again, fuck this shit). I really hope by making these sacrifices, I repented for whatever I did wrong (I don't even know!).
As a consolation though, I will be going to Paramore live in Singapore. Accompanying me will be my little sister Ashley. This will be her first (ROCK) concert. And earlier this month, I took my little brother Eric for his first concert as well, and that was Saosin. Aw, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. *sniffle* I'm hoping Paramore's gonna be awesome. I hear they're really good live, especially their unplugged/accoustic stuff. I loved All We Know Is Falling best out of all their albums, so here's hoping they don't neglect that (since they only got major recognition in Asia from Riot! onwards). Some people only started liking Paramore after they did Decode for the Twilight soundtrack.
I will be shopping for a tablet when I move to Singapore. I want, no, NEED a Bamboo Pen. And the stupid salespeople in Low Yat drove me around in circles looking for one (since they mostly carried the Pen and Touch instead of just the plain Pen, which is like RM500 more than what I am willing to pay for), before finally directing me to this Caucasian American salesman in charge of the tablet sales, who told me to get it in Singapore since I'm moving there because "it is cheaper" and "we get them from there anyways". Goddammit.
I'm moving to Singapore this Wednesday. That's less than 48 hours away. This calls for shotgun meetup sessions.

So please please please, let me let me let me...let me get what I want this time...

2010-02-09T10:17:00.000-08:00

I just sent in my application for the E! News Asia host search.

The Smiths come to mind.

Good times for a change,
See the luck I've had
Can make a good man turn bad.

So please, please, please,
Let me, let me, let me,
Let me, get what I want...this time.

"Yet To Be Named" V-Log Episode 00 - The Pilot Episode

2010-02-01T08:11:00.000-08:00

Yes I got lazy.

Songs used:

Mutual by Imogen Heap
Hey Boys and Girls (Truth of the World Part 2) by Evermore
Kayak for One (off the OST for The Holiday) by Ryeland Allison

Also, I wanted to talk about another magazine, which is JUNK magazine, and it's a pretty cool Malaysian indie music magazine but I decided to cut it out, since I was trying to keep each 'topic' not too boring for the readers.

I'm sorry if you couldn't hear it, but here's a little recap of the iPhone part.

Book 1 = SD50

Book 2 = SD36

Book 3 = SD10

More expensive yeah.

Yes I went for Saosin, right after i finished this.

FUCKIN' RIGHTEOUS.

Some crazy mofos in the mosh, and there were no bouncers to throw out/catch crowd-surfers. Even Zach jumped off the stage to join the crowd, guitar and all.

A taste of what's yet to come. (Yes, I was that close, friggin' awesome)

Shit.

2010-01-25T21:09:00.000-08:00

I just got an email reply from Edelman Singapore asking me when I'd be getting back to Singapore so they can arrange for an interview for me.

Shit, Edelman. I better not screw this up. Even though I wanted to get into journalism instead, this is a big deal.

Phew. Hope they give me a reply.

Time to put on my intellectual and ain't-scared-of-jack face.

Apparently it looks like this.

Cum Cum Cum! over ME!!!

How to ring in 2011 Part 8 - Learn to check your receipts

How to ring in 2011 Part 7 - Buy tickets to your first concert of the year.

How to ring in 2011 Part 6 - Fall in love with colors

How to ring in 2011 Part 5 - Stop working and take a breather & find your long-lost artistic side

How to ring in 2011 Part 4 - Know the OTHER co-founder of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin

How to ring in 2011 Part 3 - New Young Justice trailer

How to ring in 2011 Part 2 - Major hang-age with friends and a New Year barbecue

How to ring in 2011 Part 1 - Get a new haircut, get film for your new toys

In the garage, I feel safe, no one cares about my ways

The first day of Christmas

I am listening to the clock go ticking, I am waiting as the time goes by

Beautiful, what's your hurry?

Filmography 2010

To happy days

If you could be a Superhero for a day, who would you be?

Did nothing much this weekend. Just revisited my childhood, that's all.

David Choi in Singapore Part 1

The Dainty Squid loves colors (Giveaway post!)

All those days, watching from the windows, all those years, outside looking in.

Show of hands, who's ready for Halloween?

My Kina Grannis Stairwells CD arrived! + My first published movie review!

Newsflash! + Edit: Another newsflash!

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

Holy shit. Movie reviews, paparazzi shots, movie news, music introductions? WHAT IS THIS?

You're my clean white love, you're too clean, white love.

Take some 85% chocolate, it's good for your cough. Trust me, I'm Batman. Happy 21st to me.

All The Young Dudes

Hi, I'm an 8.5. What rating did you get from your guy friends?

These things move in threes (RocknRolla, GI Joe and Brick movie reviews)

Pure Grain Alcohol

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 07 - 100th POST! Of the only time you'll hear me sing.

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 06 - Of geeking out and Uncertainty

I'm feeling so weightless, I don't know what, I don't know how...

You're waiting for a train...

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 5 - Of Small-talk and DVD Rentals

So I heard MTV World Stage is gonna be awesome.

Death To All Hipsters (and 7 evil ex-boyfriends)

We built our own world.

This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. (MAJOR PICTURE POST)

I didn't budge from a chair for 3 hours because I was getting professional hair styling...for my wig. (Picture post ahead~!)

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START.

Amy Avenue is looking like a dream.

JUBILATIONS!!

Sunday morning rain is falling

A kiss with the fist is better than none

I'm in a world apart, a world where roses bloom

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 04 - Of getting presents when it's not your birthday

What's in my pocket? You never knew.

What do you do with a red bikini, a pair of white boots and a meter of black stretchable PVC?

"Back in Adelaide" Day 4 (GRADUATION!)

An FYI of sorts

In these deep city lights, a girl could get lost tonight.

There's Stars in my Eyes and There's Sun in my Hair

Forget all your technicolor dreams, forget modern nature, this is how it's meant to be.

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 03 - Of decorating rooms and dragon training

She killed it with kisses, and from it she fled.

"Back in Adelaide" Part 2 of 5 - Days 2 and 3

Daydreamer, sitting on the seat, soaking up the sun.

"Back in Adelaide" Part 1 of 5 - Day 1

Update.

American Woman, mama let me be.

Scooch over for a bit will ya?

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 02 - Of douchebag employers in *bleep* Communications.

Totally pointless post, I don't even know why--Y'guys watch the Community Channel on Youtube?

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 01 - Of Saosin and my little friends

K-On/Passionfruit Mango Orange flavored Tea please.

A compilation of sorts.

So please please please, let me let me let me...let me get what I want this time...

"Yet To Be Named" V-Log Episode 00 - The Pilot Episode

Shit.

Plink, Plink, Bottlecap Earrings Episode 02 - Of douchebag employers in bleep Communications.