It is no secret that I am disgustingly materialistic. I buy stuff on a whim more often than is healthy for me (or for my wallet). I always have a list of things-I-want (which often translates into a list of things-I-end-up-getting).

Here's the current list. As expected of me, it consists purely of shiny gadgets, books and clothes.

#1
Dude, what else can I say? I've been lamenting my lack of an iPhone ever since I lost mine in February and SingTel's anal iPhone policies wouldn't let me buy a new one until the no-upgrade lease in my contract was up.

And then the 3G S was announced to launch in my country one month before the lease expires. With video capability and cut-and-paste and all that fancy shit that I wished the first phone had, but didn't. Sweeet.

I am counting down the days to August when I can finally get my hands on one. So I can get back to Twittering on the train, IMing while crossing busy traffic junctions, incessantly checking my e-mail, and having tons of kick-awesome music at my fingertips.

And this time, I'm getting a chain to keep it with me always.



This completely cracks me up and I don't know why

iPhone 3GS
Price: Unknown, I'm guessing about SG $500+ with a plan
Status of acquisition: August, August, so far awaaaaaay

#2
Earlier this year my producer (who has since left the company) turned up to work in a pair of these, albeit brown. Since then they've been haunting me with their delicious retro juice and their big cups fitting snugly over ears blocking out the noise of the world.

I wanted to get a pair, but since I'd lost my iPhone and no longer had a proper MP3 player, it seemed a little silly to.

Then I went to Japan and I saw people wearing them everywhere: on the streets in the trains everywhere. Desire was rekindled.

I began looking for headphones online and eventually located these (which were produced by Panasonic, and not Audio-technica as I was originally led to believe). Sweet green cans with a brown headband... a color combination apparently now only available in Japan. Fuck the wha-!?

After a brief stint of kicking myself in the ass for not thinking of going to look for them when I was actually in the country, I finally arranged to have them delivered to me from Amazon Japan via vPost (as Amazon.co.jp doesn't ship this out of Japan).

As a matter of fact, while talking to my colleagues about my purchase I managed to somehow also talk two of them into getting the same headphones, just one in black and one in white. They are all shipping together, along with this fella, surreptitiously hitching a ride. Yun Kouga's naked space Tieria Consolidated shipping costs FTW!

Our evil plan is to simultaneously wear all three pairs in the office after they arrive, since we all sit around the same area. Yes, I know. We are undeniably awesome.

Panasonic RP-HTX7-G Headphones
Price: ¥4,482 (about US $46)
Status of acquisition: In the process of shipping

#3
I've been fascinated by Lomo cameras for a very, very long time, ever since I read about them in a news article years and years ago. In particular, I like the Colorsplash, the Horizon, Diana F+ and Lubitel cameras, for various reasons (mostly that they take pretty pictures that no amount of post-processing in Photoshop can emulate).

But they are, like all things novelty, rather pricey for something not much more than photographic conceit. And they are analogue film cameras, a format I pretty much haven't used since the turn of the century. I wondered if there was some sort of 30-day trial period for Lomo cameras.

And then I discovered that since the last time I checked, they've made these funky one-time-use disposables that come with a color filter each. That don't cost a million dollars. (And can actually be reloaded, according to the instructions that came with the box) Bingo.

After scouring the web for a while I managed to find a good shop online that sold them separately and shipped to Singapore by priority mail. I got one with a yellow filter, which was schlepped over by UPS in time for tomorrow's stayover night of drunken debauchery that my girlfriends and I have planned. We will take crazy photos (24 of them, to be exact, as provided by the single roll of 35mm film). I will then somehow get it developed. And then I will decide about the other cameras.

Lomolitos
Price: US $40 for a pack of 4, but I got one for $13 and shipped for $35
State of acquisition: I has a Lomolito at the moment. Still thinking about the actual fancy cameras themselves.

#4
I first heard of Modofly as the people who took Moleskines and laser-etched their covers. However they apparently stopped the practice after finding out that Moleskines have PVC in their covers and it's dangerous to etch them because of the tosic fumes.

So they've moved on and become an outfit that makes custom-printed, gorgeously designed notebooks and (apparently) sketchbooks. There are tons and tons of designs on their site, and a good chunk of them are incredibly lovely.

Not gonna lie, thirty-six US dollars is insanely pricey, even for a pretty fabric-bound high-quality sketchbook. It's probably not worth getting any of the designs featured on the site, even if they're really pretty.

What's interesting about them is that they do completely custom printed books. Since each of their notebooks is only printed when it gets ordered anyway, there's no difference in the charge between one of the books in their store, and a book printed with a design you supply yourself. So you could get a book printed with something you drew yourself. Or printed with an awesome crazy photograph and given as a totally unique gift to a friend. Suddenly-- gosh, it sounds like a good idea.

But if I had to pick any of the designs from their site, it would be this one. Absolutely gorgeous.


Modofly books
Price: US $36 for a large sketchbook
Status of acquisition: I'm thinking about it

#5
I stumbled across this artist's work on, of all places, ontd_political (my LJ home away from home). I can't even remember what the post was about, but I do remember homasse posting gifs of this guy's works and me going "OMFG where did you get those from?!?!" So she passed me a link to a shop that sells his artbooks-- hoo boy.

Basically, if you can't already tell from the photo, Takato Yamamoto specializes in dark sensual Ukiyo-e style paintings of beautiful, scantily-clad, somewhat androgynous young men and women, which are sometimes hard to tell apart from each other.

Needless to say, I am absolutely and utterly in love with the artwork.

(Duh.)

There are a whole bunch of artbooks that he's produced and Scarlet Maniera is the first of the lot. I don't know which of them is better than the others so I figured the first book would be an ideal place to start collecting. If I do start collecting. Much as I wish I was, I am not actually in the business of printing money.

(Why could I not have discovered all these things before I went to Japan? Why!?)


Takato Yamamoto's Scarlet Maniera
Price: ¥3,150 (about US $32)
Status of acquisition: I'm thinking about it

#6
Alright, I haven't bought anything from Threadless in a long, long time. While I love their designs, I've come to prefer long shirts with huge graphic designs that cover half of the front, which Threadless doesn't do often.

This, however, is different. I love the design. I love it. It's striking, it covers most of the shirtfront... and it has UV ink ghosts that only show up in bright sunlight. How awesome is that? Plus, it's on sale for only $12, instead of the regular $18.

On the other hand, I need to spend more money on clothes like I need a new hole in the head. So I don't know if I should. Even though it will look awesome with my wardrobe.

Also, it's been as while since I've bought from Threadless (as I've said), and in the interim they've started printing shirts on their own house brand of tees. I've not had any experience with their tees so far-- does anyone here have feedback on it? Is it light and comfy? Anyone?

"Secrets of the City" from Threadless
Price: US$12
Status of acquisition: I'm thinking about it

The Aware saga continues with MORE shenanigans. Fantastique!

First, earlier this week members got an email announcing that the venue for the Extraordinary General Meeting had been changed from the First Choice Auditorium in Toa Payoh to Hall 2 for the Singapore Expo. Fair enough, a crazy number of people have signed up in the past couple of weeks, and they need a big fat venue. Not much of a bigger fatter venue than a hall at the Singapore Expo, except maybe the National Stadium, and that's under construction.

But then it turns out that the new EGM venue is right smack beside a giant Christian convention comprising of 40+ churches, co-organized by Church Of Our Savior. The COOS have been actively encouraging their flock to sign up for this convention AND join Aware.

It doesn't take a genius to add two and two together, just saying.

If you think your blood pressure isn't high enough by this point, here's a PDF being circulated by the new exco detailing the pro-gay agenda of the old Aware, and how they're all OMG EVIL and doing all these EVIL, HORRIBLE THINGS. Somewhere perhaps, Karl Rove is sitting in a high-backed chair, his fingers steepled, as he intones "you have learned well, my disciples".

You know what I honestly think? The COOS' strongarm tactics are going to backfire against them. Even if they survive the vote of no confidence by sheer minion numbers overwhelming that of the concerned public (which is looking more and more likely by the day), I think they have ultimately doomed themselves.

It's no secret that the S'porean Govt has a very vested interest in keeping Singapore secular to all appearances (*cough* couldn't be a thorn in the side of our big and racially/culturally different neighbors now could we *cough*). If they won't even let non-religious opposition parties gain power in the country, what do you think they would think of ambitious, politically-powerful church groups? They are, without a doubt, monitoring this coup of a secular rights advocacy group very, very closely. And say what you want about our establishment, but dumb they are not. I think the COOS is starting to tread on thin ice.

For one, it's clear that the new exco are not gaining favor with the establishment here. Although the official statement from The Govt. was "Private matter, we will not interfere", and the real big-wigs have remained mum on their opinions, there have been encouraging signs: Minister of Community Development, Youth & Sport  Dr Vivian Balakrishnan urged for inclusiveness and a "rainbow coalition", Senior Minister of State for Education S. Iswaran defended the school sex-ed programmes that have come under fire from the new exco, and the Ministry of Education put out a glorious, glorious letter that was essentially a huge "fuck you" to Dr. Thio, insinuating that she was making shit up and would you please pony up with some fact to support the bullshit. (Seriously, verbatim: "MOE has contacted Dr Thio Su Mien to seek clarifications and facts to substantiate her claims." BURRRRRN)

Not exactly glowing endorsements.

Singapore, I think, is becoming increasingly less traditionally conservative, especially as the rest of the world progresses towards acceptance of gay rights. While it may be 20, 30 years before we even think about legalizing gay marriage, homophobia is pretty much falling out of vogue, especially with the establishment. Organizations such as the COOS will be finding their radical views less and less accepted by the man on the street, particularly as the current generation of Web 2.0, information-saavy kids grow up and come into their own. Which is something that gives me hope, despite all the gloom and doom.

It'll be interesting to see how this develops. Definitely interesting.

(Also, I am LOLing heartily over Dr Vivian B's co-opting of "rainbow coalition", as I approve of anything that reminds me of NOM and their ridiculous, blatantly fake "OMG THE GAY STORM IS COMING" ads. Particularly Stephen Colbert's winning parody.)

One more before I go. A lovely video from the old guard:


Love that they've gotten people from all races to participate in this one. Sign up. Turn up. And vote. ♥

ETA: EGM venue changed yet again! Now in Suntec! My inner skeptic and egotist? Is telling me that this was done after WayangParty's exposé blew the new exco's cover open all over Twitter and the blogosphere. How will this affect events? I have no idea, man. I shall consult my Magic 8 ball... "cannot say now"? BAH, FLAKER.

This is a continuation of my post from yesterday, about the ongoing power struggle in Aware, which has very quickly turned into a raging Christian-fundies-versus-sane-people movement online. I spent a large part of yesterday reading links, posting to Facebook/Twitter and talking to people about this subject. Here's a quick summary of online-things I found yesterday which I think an important read.

A bunch of spotlights on the shenanigans of the new guard: stir thy outrage!

• An excellent post by dogemperor, on the truth behind the Church Of Our Savior: Steeplejack of AWARE (women's org) in Singapore by Joel's Army church
• Particularly rage-inducing email also linked in above post, in which a pastor from CooS urges his flock to join Aware: COOS Pastor Shawn Tay rallying troops to support new exco at EGM in the name of “Singapore” (this email made me gag in particular. "Responsible females"? Could you use language that is any more offensive?)
• New exco attempts to lock old guard out of Aware office: Showdown at AWARE office over lock change by new exco
• Aware's centre managed fired for "insubordination", replaced by CooS member: Aware's public education officer quits ("quits"? She was FIRED, there wasn't any choice in it)

In interviews with the Straits Times (Singaporean context: largest, oldest and most respected English daily paper), the new exco have denied that their power grab was planned beforehand, and vehemently denied that their church had got anything to do with it at all. Yes, I'll believe that. Nope, no significance to the fact that six of the new exco are all members of the same church, none at all. After all, they didn't know each other from before! And the fact that new center manager they appointed is also a member of the church? Nyet, also must be coincidink. Next thing we know, they'll be selling us title deeds to the Benjamin Sheares bridge for fundraising!

Links that, at least, give a glimmer of hope:

• Insightful op-ed from Straits Times: Aware Saga: A new militancy emerges (a must-read!)
  
• Sign the petition! Even if you can't go for the EOGM, even if you're not Singaporean, you can show your support for the old guard by joining the 1300+ signatures here: Save AWARE! Gender equality for all!
• Online drive to cancel DBS credit cards in protest against new Aware president Josie Lau, who heads the marketing team for said credit cards: Mr Wang Says So: AWARE - And Why You Should Cancel Your DBS Credit Cards
  Note that I don't condone this: as a form of protest, I think it hits the wrong people (DBS, who had nothing to do with this and in fact protested--first privately, and then very publically-- Josie Lau's intention to head Aware). And I honestly don't think it's right to jeopardize Josie Lau's job just because we don't agree with something she's done. My take on it is that it runs counter to everything this protest is about! OTOH, it's good to know what other people are doing in protest. At the very least, it shows just how passionate folks are about this issue. And that's not entirely a bad thing.
• Fresh from the Internets! No! Don't cancel your DBS credit card! This surfaced on Twitter while I was typing out this post, and agrees that canceling cards is not really the sort of protest we want to go for. Good.
  

So what did I take away from all this? It's not all that easy to sum up. I can say that the bottom line is this: the words and the actions of the new exco, particularly the juicy tidbits that came to light yesterday, have completely destroyed any chance for their redemption in my eyes. It's not even a Christian-fundies-vs-gay-rights issue anymore. At this point, I wouldn't care if these women hailed from the Church Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster or the Communist Party of North Korea: what they have done is sleazy, sleazy, sleazy. I care about the rights of women, and these power-grabbing, lock-changing, despotic closed-door shenanigans are most emphatically not the actions of a group that hold the best interests of all women at heart.

The fight for gender equality is still very much relevant in these supposedly-enlightened days where women can vote and a black man can sit in the White House. In a poll published in the Straits Times today, 48% of respondents said that the Aware issue was "women fighting amongst themselves". Women fighting amongst themselves, is that it? If the situation were different and it were one group of men snatching power from another, would people on the street dismiss it as "men fighting amongst themselves"? Hint: just pick a history book, any history book, and look inside. How many of those male-instigated and male-led conflicts are described as "men fighting amongst themselves"? You got it right, none. I quote, from the ST article, a certain bank consultant Lim Boon Heng (aged 42) who was interviewed: "I think this issue is about women who are overzealous about a certain issue. They are trying to use their existing network to influence the public." Whoah nelly. Psssst Mr Lim, I don't know if anyone's told you yet, but your MCP is showing. You don't have to thank me.

The madness needs to stop. Aware still has a long ways to go in fighting for gender equality here, and the underhanded actions of the new exco have not just thrown suspicion upon their intentions; they have tainted the good name and standing of a 25-year-old organization that has been doing important and excellent work. Allowing them to get away with this would be to the detriment of women all over Singapore.

If you want to find out more, or find out how you can take part in the vote of no confidence against the new exco next Saturday (2nd May!), Save Aware is an excellent resource! A couple of my friends have actually expressed concern over joining Aware--as one of them said, "What happens if the vote fails? I don't want my money supporting the new exco". And I agree that this is an issue (one I didn't even think of!), and it's a veritable large-scale Prisoner's Dilemma: if you join the organization and the vote fails, the money will be in the hands of the new exco. Yet the vote is more likely to fail if like-minded people don't show up in large numbers and vote. So what to do? Ultimately, it's up to the individual to decide. Myself, I'm banking on sanity prevailing, and the vote succeeding. I've already thrown my lot in with Aware, at any rate, and even if the vote doesn't go through I will continue to fight, and rally people to fight, in whatever ways I can.

It was khaosworks who first brought this to my attention via a Facebook link, and I've spent the day being rather upset by it. I've posted it to ontd_political already, but I feel I must post it here as well.

Okay. Let's start with some background, first, for those who are not Singaporeans. About a month ago, the local (Singaporean) chapter of AWARE, an advocacy group for women's rights, had its AGM. A whole slew of new members turned up, overwhelmed the old guard by sheer numbers, and voted an almost-entirely new executive committee into power.

The new exco began by cutting out older and more experienced members from leadership and subcommittee positions. They weren't being open on what their agenda was, and what it was they were planning to do with the organization. Keen-eyed local bloggers noted that the new exco had previously published anti-homosexual opinions in public forums, there was a lot of speculation that the new exco was trying to subvert the purpose of AWARE by turning it into an anti-gay group.

Now? They've come clean with their intentions. In a press conference, the organizer of the coup, senior layer Thio Su Mien, explicitly stated that she was "disturbed by what she saw as signs that [Aware] was promoting lesbianism and homosexuality", and was moved to take action against "Aware's attempts to redefine marriage and families".

First of all, that is such utter BULLSHIT. Aware is a women's rights group, which campaigns for the welfare of all women, including--you guessed it! LESBIAN WOMEN! Just because Aware is accepting of gay women--a group of women who face more discrimination than heterosexual women-- does not mean that they are ...what was it? "Promoting lesbianism". What the fuck does that even mean? Promoting being gay? That's like saying they're promoting being black. Or being Indian. People don't just wake up and decide that they're gay, FFS. Get a clue, we aren't living in the 1950s any longer!

IN ADDITION. The way she says it, it's like helping out lesbian women is the only thing Aware does. WRONG, TRY AGAIN. Aware is a secular group that aims to help all women--whether in school, the workplace or at home. I wasn't even a member until last week and I know this. That these people have decided to co-opt a women's rights group to push their decided bigoted agenda is both horrifying and infuriating.

Yeah, I haven't hit the bottom of the barrel of stupidity yet. I'll let the soundbites speak for themselves. Presenting: the opinions of Dr. Thio:


ON AWARE'S SEXUALITY PROGRAMME



AN ENTIRE GENERATION OF LESBIANS?


REFOCUSING ON ORIGINAL PURPOSE OF AWARE



There are so many things that are wrong with her statements that I don't even know where to begin. Her comments are such a black hole of close-minded bigotry and "I DO NOT THINK YOU KNOW WHAT THAT WORD MEANS", approaching them with any semblance of logic will cause instant collapse. Bad analogy, I know, but I'm so angry I don't quite care.

Here, have some links!

The Original Source
Sidebar (speech nuggets of WTFery!)
More background on the entire incident
Post I made to ONTD_P, full of incoherent rage!
It's been Boinged too! Interesting take on it from an outsider's perspective



The existing members of Aware, however, are not just sitting by and idly doing nothing. There's going to be an extraordinary General Meeting on the 2nd of May where there will be a petition for a vote of no confidence in the new exco. All female members, old or new, are welcome! Membership for Aware is SG$40 for a year, $25 if you're a student. You can sign up at their website or at their offices.

I joined Aware last week and I will definitely be going for the EOGM. So, Singaporean sisters! If equality for all women matters to you, and you have the time and money to spare, do consider joining Aware and making your voice heard at the EOGM! I'll be there, at the very least. Join me!

RANDOM MINI PICSPAM TIEMZ.

Last night I skipped gym to rearrange the posters on the wall of my room. Took off a few old LOTR/Star Trek pinups, as well as a few dull-looking Death Note promo flyers, and put up a few new things, including a giant LaMB poster illustrated by the head dude @ IFS (aka artgerm on DA--he's apparently a huge hit there, I hear). His art is effin' gorgeous. Hell, the only thing I got when I went to AFA last year was an eighty-dollar artbook put up by IFS that I got him to autograph. Heh.

I'm quite pleased with the results (mmm, widescreen function on my camera):


Now. I've recently moved tables in the office, of my own accord, and have given up the iMac that I was using on the account of it being old and slower than a bowl of molasses floating backwards in a bathtub. As a result, the Virtue gunpla that was sitting in front of said iMac has been orphaned, and plunked on my neighbor's desk for the sheer amusement value.

Virtue has been having several... adventures on her desk.




Disney 1, Bandai 0!


ETA: THANKS TO A COMMENT BY french_noodles:

EEEEK MOM IT'S LOOKING AT ME MAKE IT STOPPPPPPP

ETA 2: THANKS TO A COMMENT BY piyomon:


IT WAS AN ACCIDENT :3

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Missed today's Gundam live again, as usual. Instead, am freshly returned from lunch and a catch-up with a bunch of friends from secondary school. Good times, all around ♥

Conversation tends to skew in certain directions depending on the composition of the group; with this group of friends we tend to talk about the past, a lot. How things used to be. How much things have changed. And how everybody we knew back then is doing now.

Nostalgia, perhaps; maybe a touch of sadness. Some lingering regret at not having turned out like the others did, elevated to normal and orderly lives which trace nice hard straight paths with a clear road ahead. Instead there's a sense that I took a hard right on a plateau with a very small horizon, and have since then found myself wading into the progressively murkier waters of a swamp.

But that's a story for another day.

Finally, a photo, because I finally have a halfway decent photo of myself with short hair.


From L to R: Melissa, Debby, Jocelyn, yours truly


I picked up both of Obama's books yesterday at a one-day, store-wide sale. Three chapters into Dreams From My Father I can say this: he is as amazing a writer as he is a politician. Hot damn, it's not as if I needed to fangirl him any harder. GADDAM IT! (with a additional ":P" in logam's general direction.)

BACK FROM THE HAIRCUT OF DOOM.

When I came home my sister took a look at me and went "REVIVE!!!!" Not quite, as the hair is too short to manage the duck-tail tufts that Revive's hair has.

TBH, the b00bies character which my hair most resembles is Louise's, especially when it was wet and my fringe was in strips, at the salon.

I had my sis take some photos, but they turned out all horribly blurred, so I was forced to take mirror-shots of myself eventually. So you can take a gander at both my lovely new haircut, and my lovely new(ish) digicam!




( MOAR FABULOUSNESS )


Now I'm off to watch the raw of this weeks' b00bies episode, and see whether I can be arsed to do a capfest for it this week or not.

So I'm thinking of getting a haircut.

See, the thing is, I made a mistake the last time I went to the hairdressers', and I didn't get my hair trimmed all that much. Thus, less than four months later, it's long enough for me to need to tie it up on hotter days, which annoys me immensely. Since the Chinese New Year is round the corner, a traditional time to get haircuts (before, not during or after), it seems a good time as any to get the locks shorn.

Except that, with my trip to Japan coming up, I need to save money. And I certainly can't afford the five hundred dollar cut/color/perm extravaganza that happens each time I hit the hairdressers'. My solution: skip the color and the perm, and jazz up the hair by going for a really short cut.

Like, really, really short.

Rachel Maddow-short.




The more I've thought about it, the more it appeals to me. Why not? It's easy to comb and maintain, and without the curls I won't have to spend an absurd amount of time in the mornings primping and preening and applying solutions. Plus, it might make a good conversation piece for a couple of weeks at least.

I still have my reservations, though. Not everybody can carry off a page cut, and I wonder if I have the bone structure, and the sass, to make the cut (pardon the pun). Will super-short hair make me look plain? Will it go with the berets I love wearing? Will everybody instantly assume I'm totally butch the moment they look at me?

DECISIONS, DECISIONS.

I shall not tempt myself by thinking of getting a Revive-style duck cut, goddam


Also, sigh. If only we could all be as intelligent, gorgeous, articulate and openly queer as Rachel is. She's amazing.

Ever since I swapped my Nokia N73 out for an iPhone, I have been bitching and bitching on about how inadequate the iPhone's built-in camera is. No manual focus? No white metering? No fucking flash? In this day and age? Jesus Christ, what a crock of shit.

Since I have a habit of photographing random interesting things that I see while out and about, I decided that I now couldn't live without a decent compact camera of my own. I started hunting for one, saw the prices... and balked, as contrary to popular belief I do not have spare hundreds in cash that I can wantonly toss around. A colleague offered his own camera, second hand, for half-price... and I said I'd buy it from him in January, giving me adequate time to starve myself into purchasing sufficiency.

Last Saturday, over dinner, my dad asked me, "So, did you have anything in mind you wanted for Christmas?"

Thrown for a loop--as I usually am whenever people ask me what I want as a present for X--I ended up blurting, "Well, I was looking to get a compact digital camera, but I think I'm getting one second-hand from my colleague in January..."

"Well," my dad said, "you don't have to do that any more." And then he handed me a box.

ASFDJKLAWEJR HOW DO THEY KNOW--

So my parents got me, for Christmas, a Canon Digital IXUS 870 IS, done up in snazzy bling-worthy gold. It's a great camera, I've enjoyed monkeying with it over the week.

(My sister was the one who told them I wanted a digital camera for Christmas, after she figured it out when I borrowed hers to take to AFA.)

A sample of the photos (and the one video) that cam out of said monkeying around!

Delish!


( My Pomeranian Chewie, my sister as Tieria Erde, Singapore Changi Airport, and Ugly Chicken Puffs. )

( VIDEO OF TWO PUPPIES. I REPEAT, VIDEO OF TWO PUPPIES. YOU WANT TO SEE IT. YOU DO. )


But of course, the most amazing and unexpected present has come from istoo, who bought me a permanent account on LJ! ASFDJKLAWEJR!! [speechless incoherent flailing] Thank you so much OMG. I seriously have no idea what I've done to deserve this, but OMG THANK YOU and ILU OMG, and have I already said OMG? *expires* I have space for 190+ usericons now-- what to I fill them up with? Halp!


The real question is, though, WHAT SHALL I NAME THE NEW CAMERA? (Yes, it's an important question!) Perhaps something ridiculous like Bling Stabbity? Or... geez... I don't know, Joe the camera Bob? Any suggestions, folks?

The thing about trying to draw in the style of the incredible Audrey Kawasaki for my Christmas art project is that her style of work is incredibly addictive. I got one down and then suddenly I wanted to draw a dozen other people all in the same style.

Which is how I ended up doing this sketch of Allelujah and Marie, cribbing a name from the latest horrendously-titled Bond flick.




a quantum of solace
graphite on paper, A4.

Interesting story to this one: On the way home from work I was doing the finishing touches on Allelujah's face while waiting for the train to arrive. When it finally did and I had gotten myself a seat, the two guys who had gotten onto the train with me leaned over and chatting, asking about the piece! One of them wanted had a passion for drawing and was contemplating enrolling in an art school. He asked me where I got the inspiration for this; I was a little embarrassed to admit that it was a drawing of somebody else's characters done in somebody else's art style (originality, much?). I ended up dispensing some life advice to complete strangers (go for a design diploma instead of a fine arts one, more practical bread-and-butter-wise), which is more than I'd bargained for when I started off.

Yay for life, I guess, eh?

FACT OF LIFE: Men of all stripes and ages are completely, utterly incapable of checking out women subtly.

Going down to the gym for more than a month has convinced me of that. They can't look discreetly. They turn their heads to look. And they keep turning their heads as the walk all they way down the gym. It's like--staaaaaare.

I mean, I know I ought to be flattered, but I can't help but feel embarrassed for them when I catch them at it. In my head I'm all, "Yes guys, I know my ass has finally checked in after 25 years in absentia and I actually fill out my pants now, but do you really have to look so damn hard? PERIPHERAL VISION EXISTS FOR A REASON YOU KNOW."

*snort*

I have to admit, thought, that I'm pretty guilty myself of checking out men with nice bodies. Like last night, when there turned up this slender guy who had Allelujah's physique. His face wasn't that cute, but I couldn't stop flicking my eyes over every now and then to watch him work the weights. IT WAS A NICE VIEW, OKAY?

When I texted pigtail78 about it later her response was, "Well, you could have always imagined him with the face of the cute guy you see on the bus whom you say looks a bit like Alle".

I tell you guys, if any such person ever turned up at the gym I would not be able to get through any of my repetitions.

It would go: "One, two, three, four, five, six... daaaaamn he looks fine, I want to go talk to him... shit, where was I again? Dammit. One, two, three..."

But at least I would be staring at him discreetly.


BRB, REFRESHING ONTD_P AND WATCHING MSNBC STREAMING LIVE AND TRYING NOT TO CHEW MY NAILS OFF. Nate Silver says exit polls are bunkum and we should not trust exit polls but they called Pennsylvania on exit polls and oh goddddd it's a good thing I cleared a lot of my work for today yesterayyyy--

We got to Japanese class early yesterday, before our sensei arrived. We proceeded to attack the magnetic strips on the whiteboard.







My sister thought she was funny and turned his name from Haro to PARO.

Our sensei was so amused she took photos of it (shumi wa shashing wo torukoto kara, itsu mo kamera wo mottekimasu).

And then later we were given a printout for a conversation exercise in which we were supposed to say what we were going to do when we next went to Japan.

It was an illustrated printout.



It's amusing how my sister and I both saw the same illustration, immediately thought, "Guy A's stabbing Guy B in the head with a ski pole!!" and proceeded to deface the drawing thus.

Moral of the story: don't learn how to ski from Hallelujah. Ever. ("He ran into my ski pole! He ran into my ski pole ten times!")

It had been our sensei's birthday Monday this week, so we gave her a card (handmade by yours truly), and a little teddy bear (because she likes 'em). Then we took class photos!




Unfortunately my camera is a piece of crud and my photo came off out of focus. I'm the dude with the hat and the blue scarf.

This was inspired by a conversation between rynn_sama and I which started off with us talking about Code Geass cosplay and somehow ended up with her saying "Now I want to see T-chan in a short skirt and pigtails."

So I grabbed one of my working Moleskines and sketched/inked up after she had gone to bed.


I obviously have no idea what the Ashford Academy uniform looks like and I couldn't be arsed to look it up on the Internet because I was doing this in between translating a four page document from Mandarin Chinese to English (a real stretch for a Chinese C student). So I just substituted my own student council jacket from high school made one up instead.

Also, I now remember why I hate sketching stuff in 2B mechanical pencil. Horrendous mess. Horrendous. Luckily I didn't bork the inks up as much this time round.

The thing I love about working in my office is that you can have my direct superior sneak out at lunch to go get the world premiere of Grand Theft Auto 4, come back and set it up on the Xbox in our creative lounge... and when the boss sees it he's like "heeyyy--!" and runs to grab at the controls from him. Sigh, it's fun working in a creative house.

Not much Xbox playing will be going on in the next week or so, though, since our co-producer from the UK is here on a business visit (Er, UK no producer wa shucchousurukoto ni kochira e kimasu? *borks Japanese*), which means lots of production meetings, which I expect I'll have to attend. EXCEPT THAT I HAVE TO TAKE HALF A DAY OFF TOMORROW TO GO TO THE DENTIST'S BECAUSE I JUST DISCOVERED A GIANT CAVITY IN ONE OF MY MOLARS TODAY.

And all this while I thought my teeth hurting when I chewed was just sensitive gums. Agh.

I desperately hope no tooth extraction or painful surgery will be needed because aside from the whole I CANNOT AFFORD THIS SHIT thing I also cannot afford to have downtime at this crucial junction. Guh. Already the half day off to the dentist is killing me because it means I have to spend tomorrow morning cramming to finish adding stuff to and polishing the translated document before our UK guest arrives at 9AM because my exec producer needs it by the end of the day and I have to leave the office by twelve. Which means that I have to get into the office by 8AM which means that I need to leave the house before 630AM which means that I SHOULD REALLY GET TO BED NOW BECAUSE IT'S PAST MIDNIGHT FUCK. ASFDJKLA DARN SCRIPT BEATS FOR KEEPING ME UP SO LATE ASFDJKLA.

Expect me to be slow to reply to comments, both today's and yesterday's. GOMEN. FORGIVE. ONEGAISHIMASU.

At least Thursday will be a holiday? And look! It's T-chan in a tiny skirt! Shiny!

I've been the worst LJ friend ever this week. Haven't had the time to catch up with comments, my friendslist, or any of the communities at all.

That's because I've been having the busiest, but most incredible week ever, at work.

Since Tuesday, when my boss set it all rolling off by firstly putting me in charge of setting up the office media tree-sculpture-installation and then including me in the company dinner with our overseas guests for the week, my week has consisted of an entire slew of production meetings, script rewrites, and running around getting help screw-mounting LCD monitors, hooking them up with old CPUs and then attempting to get videos to play on them.

Crazy stuff. Exhilarating. I feel like maybe I'm beginning to do something useful with my life.

The best part of Friday, actually, was lunch. I held back with my creepily-obtained packet of Point Point Food so I could lunch with some of my colleagues, and I ended up drawing out some of their SEKRIT GUNDAM FANBOYS! by asking one of our producers if he knew where I could find good subbed copies of the original Gundam series, since he had a water tumbler with one of the RX models printed on it.

What then transpired was twenty minutes of listening to fanboying about how awesome the Universal Century set was, and how the director of the original Gundam series was notorious for being Mr "KILL ALL!" and who had the propensity for ending a series by BLOWING UP THE WHOLE UNIVERSE. Man, I could learn a thing or two from this guy.

Fucking awesome.

The weekend has been much the same, with me running around doing a bunch of work-related stuff (entertaining a guest, re-figuring out DVD rips, script commenting). Some bizarre series idea hit me in the head when I was showering Friday night, so I spent some time fleshing out a concept and sketching the lead character. Pitching on Monday. Fuck, that tomorrow, isn't it?

Tomorrow. We're having a potluck lunch in the office tomorrow, so I had to attempt to cook this evening (potatoes and mushrooms with garlic and basil). It went better than expected, because despite managing to burn two knuckles on the inside of a 200-degree oven, I did not end up blowing up the universe kitchen.

Yesterday I took one of our guests on a research trip to the National Museum of Singapore. We had a lovely, lovely time (and a lovely, lovely company-sponsored lunch)! Our guest tried durian for the first time and wasn't absolutely repulsed by it; I was amazed. The last Englishperson I personally saw being force-fed durian, in the first lab I interned in, took half a mouthful and said "How do you guys actually eat this stuff!?" (A: With great relish, actually. It's true.)

I've not been to the museum since the 1990s, and snapshots of the newly-refurbished interior told my inner glass-and-metal-architecture fan that a behemoth digicam was absolutely neccessary.The fan was not disappointed, and neither was I. There was a whole section of 19th-century architecture, which is beautiful, and another whole section of 21st-century archictecture, which was also beautiful. I HAVE PICTURES AND NO POWER IN THE VERSE WILL STOP ME FROM SHARING THEM.



The National Museum Of Singapore: A Flickr Photo Set
(I don't know how this Flickr thing works. I've only used it once before, in May 2005. Halp.)


THE TL;DR SUMMARY: My week was awesome. I love my job. I want to blow up the universe. The end!

Okay. I've been seriously too busy to look at LJ these couple of days, but this has totally. freaked. me. out.

See, I buy lunch, almost every day, from the same rice-and-side-dishes stall (affectionately known as the Point Point Food stall: you point and point, and they give you food). There are a bunch of middle-aged guys running the stall.

One of them, for some unfathomable reason, always says, when he sees me, "HALLELUJAH."

No kidding.

The first time, I thought I had misheard, and he had recommended curry and braised duck in Mandarin (ka li, lu ya).

But when he kept on doing it, I figured he couldn't possibly be recommending something every day if a) I never order meat dishes from them, and b) they don't actually have curry OR braised duck on the menu.

Today, when I went, he looked at me, said, "Hallelujah!", and then raised his hands in worship.

What. The. Flying. Fuck.

I have come to the conclusion that either:

1. He thinks I'm God, or


2. He wants to incite my inner psychopath to KILL HIM DED WITH A FISHKNIFE.

Either way, my daily lunch-buying efforts are made of WTF.

Seriously.

Brr.

Yesterday my office held a Christmas-gift-exchange-cum-holiday-celebration-grubs-up over lunch. The theme was, somehow, "Racial Harmony Day" so we were all supposed to dress up in ethnic costumes. I didn't have any, so I pulled out an old silk outfit from Thailand which I don't wear anymore because it's honestly about 2 and a half sizes too large for me.

One of the interns, Rachel, turned up in a mixture of Arab/Indian clothes, complete with a little brown scarf. I stole it (ha, stole).



The best costume, however, definitely went to Nicola, who came in a full kimono outfit. With the obi and the wooden sandals and everything.



Here's a picture of my desk, post-lunch.




QUICK! Do the poll, then click the cut to find out if you were correct!

Poll #1108916 GUESS THE BEVERAGE!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

WHAT'S IN THE BLUE MUG?

( Did you guess correctly? )

ETA: Japan's chief cabinet secretary says alien spacecraft are real
NASA has a Stargate

BoingBoing amuses me.

When you don't see me posting here for stretches at a time, assume that I a) am too busy to get on LJ, b) have nothing new or particularly share-worthy to report, and c) am way content with the way my life is going.

Yes, I said it. I am happy. I am happy with my work, with writing scripts and treatments and assorted stuff all day, and then going home to watch anime with my little sister all night.

It makes for a boring life--and therefore a boring journal--but I'm satisfied with it.

Plus, picking up new fandoms makes me happy.

Now, just to gauge how much work I have ahead of me, please answer this short one question poll that will not take you five minutes, nor will it kill you (not at once, anyway).

Poll #1104200 The Gundam Boobies Poll.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Are you watching, or have you watched Gundam 00?

That will be all for today. Keep your eyes peeled for further developments... which will come in trickle by trickle.

I'm good.

The boss liked the program concept I submitted on Friday, which I've been working on for a bit. Boss said, execution stayed for another day! Yeah, things are shiny on the workfront. For now. We're probably moving from Chinatown to the heart of Nowhere sometime in the next week, after which I will get to enjoy a delightful four hours' worth of rush-hour commuting on a daily basis. Lack of time for the WIN.

I got the insurance agent over yesterday to sign up for a new policy. Nothing better than knowing that my sister will now get $100,000 in cash should she hire assassins to do me in. Mmmm, security.

This is the best show ever.

And now, since I haven't done this in a while, Japanese class sketch! I forgot to bring my usual DEATH NOTE to class, so I bought a thin, tiny sketchbook from Kinokuniya to take notes with. Sensei asked what I was drawing, I said, "...er, yaoi." Sensei looked quite alarmed.


Wolfram: Issho ni nemasen ka? (Shall we sleep together?)
Yuuri: Chotto.... (Errrr....)

June's mini-essay for Japanese class:
私は昨日の朝六時半に起きました。朝ごはんを食べました。それからMRTで会社へ行きました。仕事は九時から七時まで。午後一時半昼ごはんを食べました。昨日の晩どこも行きませんでした、家へ帰りました。餃子を食べました。それからテレビを見ました、それから寝ました。

We were supposed to give an account of how we spent our Friday, but I didn't know what "insurance agent" was in Japanese so I left that entire bit out. It looks impressive if you don't understand any Japanese. A six year old could write better than this.

Having left the house extra-early I arrived at my subway destination pleased as punch. Finally! Finally I had managed to arrive at work supremely early on my own steam! Smugly I tapped my book [1] against the exit gantry reader.

Nothing happened.

Thinking I had missed the subway pass safely stowed in the back page of the book, I tapped the book on the gantry again.

Nothing happened.

As it turned out, I had missed tapping the pass against the gantry on both occasions. That would be because the pass was not in my book. It was, in fact, lying on the floor on a train or station platform somewhere that I'd passed during my hour-long train journey.

Crapsticks, I thought, but no biggie-- I'd go to the station control center, explain myself, pay whatever punitive fee they required, and be on my merry way. To work. Early.

"You won't be able to recover that pass," the man at the counter said. "How much did you have stored in it?"

I winced, suddenly remembering that I'd just topped up the wretched thing not a day before. "More than thirty bucks."

"That's really too bad. You'll still have to pay for the train fare, by the way. It's a dollar fifty."

I reached into my bag.

At that moment, an epiphany struck me. My wallet. I'd last seen it on my desk at home as I was hurrying to get out of the house.

It was still there. On my desk. At home. An hour's train journey away.

I gave the counter man the beseeching, mortified look that only the newly-stranded and suddenly-destitute can manage.

Thankfully, the counter man was a kind, compassionate soul who let me out, reddened face and all, without having to pay any more for the train fare than the thirty bucks that I'd just lost. I still got to the office, more than an hour early.

The door was locked. I was the first. And I hadn't a key.

In conclusion? It was not the best of mornings. By any stretch of imagination.




It's a good thing I have nice colleagues who are willing to lend me lunch and train money. And who do not mock me overmuch.


[1]The book in concern being the first Kyou Kara Maou! light novel, translated into Traditional Chinese, and chock-full of drawings so badly-proportioned that I cannot believe that they were done by the same person responsible for the fabulous, fabulous and did I mention fabulous? manga of the same series. Some of the drawings are so awkwardly drawn that, upon seeing them, I get irresistible urges to hurl books of anatomy at people.

Horrendously busy; I'm reminded of my college days, in the weeks before the exams: full of things to read and do, disappearing from my lives, in the real world and online, for weeks at at a time. Such has been the past two weeks for me. I have been consumed by labwork, and the New Year festivities, and the sheer amount of reading to squeeze in between, not to mention two hangovers from Hell (note to self, for future reference: downing the equivalent of four shots of Bacardi in the space of half an hour is a bad, BAD idea).

Drawn yesterday, in a fit of despair, half an hour before I was supposed to present a paper for group meeting (which went down like a sack of bricks encased in lead, I assure you).



0.3mm 2B lead on paper, except for the signature, which was rendered in 4B lead pencil.

Emergence from hermitage is not a guaranteed thing. Watch This Space.

~~June