Two ways I usually use to differentiate good designers from brilliant ones. Attention to details and Typography! I posted links on typography before but it’s kinda hard to describe why it is so important. I think this post needs no explanation. Just look!
Weekends are kinda lonely without my Bunny. He’s coming back tomorrow! I’m so happy!
Last night I was invited to a college friend’s Birthday dinner. He booked a table at International Seafood Market (ECP), set up for 12 people. Two huge lobsters, three huge crabs and many other courses later, I told him he might as well get married now, thanks for the extravagance.
After dinner, we went to St James for KTV. I absolutely have no idea how I was able to keep up with all those late nights in the past. Because by three, my head was threatening to fall off if I don’t go to bed soon. Before heading home, we went to down to Dragonfly to take a look and Wow! Flashback! A whole community of Bengs and Lians! I told Aileen I didn’t know they still exist. I always wanted to show Pink Jr what bengs and lians are because according to her, there are no such people in her school. How atrocious!
I’m leaving MINDEF. I have been wrecking my head the past week weighing my options. I’ve talked to people in MINDEF and people in the information communications industry but ultimately the choice is mine to make.
I’ve expressed my wish to leave and had a little chat with my boss’s boss this morning. He talked about what I will be missing and for a while, I started to waver. I definitely have to forget about my merit increment (which is rather yum) and a certain bonus.
Monetary stuff aside, MINDEF is the best place I’ve worked for, which makes leaving so much harder. But I’ve gotta do what I gotta do. So there.
On lighter stuff, my sister met Mark Rutkowski in a recent visit to an art gallery in Iowa.
i left the group to check out this art gallery we passed by several times, on espanola way. the building was empty aside from art on wall. they were displayed in a very raw way. not like the ones with expensive spotlight and glass cases in city museums or stores. i walked around and was surprised that the artists of all the work have studios right in the building itself. i saw a paper, stuck onto a wall, that read ‘Prints for Sale starting from $15 by Mark Rutkowski’. after several paces back and forth i finally knocked on a white door labeled Mark Rutkowski and then there was Mark Rutkowski himself standing barefoot before me in tshirt and berms. a Mystery Man unveiled! we exchanged a transaction and stories of travels and experiences for about an hour. sometime in this duration i noticed a cctv in the top corner of the room which he checks regularly and realised that he must have seen me pacing back and forth.
What a cool encounter! I can’t wait to see what she bought.
Aileen says this avatar in Second Life looks like me. I don’t mind, she looks better.
On another note, I miss The Sims! And I need to start playing again. The last time I was obsessed with The Sims, I wasn’t speaking to Aileen, so she didn’t exist in my Sims World. I’ll find her a sexy stud to “woohoo” with. Maybe two.
When I was playing, I haven’t met Baby too, so although there was some imaginary romance going on between my Sim and some random dude. It was just sad you know?
I lost all my downloaded furnishings, sims, architecture etc so I guess I have to do it all over again. I don’t mind it at all because the search IS the BEST part of the game! I’m itching already! Baby has heard stories about my Nerdism but he haven’t seen it in action. No darling, you think you have, you really haven’t. This Nerd Disorder will be fun for you too, promise! You like babies right? I can totally give you some. Blonde? No problem at all!
More bunny art. There are also some I didn’t blog about. I think I need a whole category for Bunny art alone. The following is a little Donnie Darko. I suggest you check out the rest of his website. He has some mad skills.
Poolga is a website that offers iPhone and iPod Touch wallpapers from a selection of designers and illustrators from around the world. But you can always resize them to suit your own cell’s resolution.
I was looking at the list of artists and found this gem from one of the links. I mentioned the lomo effect when I blogged about Holga.
Now, I don’t see much of a difference between the two, to be completely honest. Haha.
Baby is on the plane to USA, I just saw him off at Terminal 3. Boo. He said he might visit LA Ink. Argh! I want a Corey Tattoo you know! Speaking of tattoos, my sister might be getting one from Miami Ink! Apparently, a colored star will cost her about 200 to 250 USD. My mum is totally against it. She wrote the following in her email reply.
Please, please, pleaseeeeeeee don’t do that. I really HATE.
A mermaid found a swimming lad,
Picked him for her own,
Pressed her body to his body,
Laughed; and plunging down
Forgot in cruel happiness
That even lovers drown.
– William Butler Yeats
Hooters + MOS + Coffee Club at 3 am + Old Dance Buddies + Boon Tong Kee + SENTOSA! + Pink Dolphins + I love the Albino Python + Friends from Aussie + Hawker Food Feast + See you again at the Airport + Report report report! + Seafood Dinner
I sprained my leg in MOS and was limping around on a swollen foot on Saturday, I was alright in two days because Bunny the Sinseh fixed it. <3
Anyway, Sentosa was great! I touched a stingray and it was nothing like what I imagined. It was smooth and velvety and really really soft. And they were so so friendly. Outside, a snake trainer tried to scare me by draping an albino python over my shoulders. But it felt so snuggly and warm! I tried kissing its head but it kept aiming for the floor. My friends looked on like I was quite mad, but baby was beaming widely.
I never thought holding on to a snake was a big deal, but when he beamed at me like that it actually felt really important! You know, it is really nice to have someone appreciate every little thing you do, even those seemingly insignificant ones. I can only hope that I'm just as appreciative.
Anyway, I made a video of me and Baby. Actually, it's more like a video tribute to him. "Awww how sweet is she!" Not really. I just didn't have enough clips of me.
I didn't get to caption them, so it looks like a jumble of unrelated clips. Do check out the one I took of him kissing his grandmother. It is damn cute!
If Google Inc is heaven to geeks, that’ll make Pixar heaven to illustrators? Nate Wragg works in Pixar as an artist. I prefer Chris Sanders because he created Stitch, which is the cutest animated creature ever.
I didn’t include clips of Candy Babe, because you can’t have her! This video clip was edited with Windows Movie Maker. It is idiot proof, unlike Adobe Premier, who is crazy with all her buttons and options and whatnots.
Anyway, I got bitten by the design bug big time, so expect some changes. I was working on a website yesterday, eliminating messy codes and replacing them with W3C compliant ones gave me such a big kick that I went right home to work on a new layout.
If you have been following my layouts, you’ll know that I’m not a programming person. But CSS is actually quite fun to play with.
Ever since I started working, I’ve become interested in looking at workspaces. I know that a workspace should reflect professionalism, but I can’t help adding colours to my surroundings. So over time, this explosion of colours happened.
Some trivia..
I find comfort in chaos. I’m one of those people
Most of the stuff on my table are gifts. I don’t know if you guys remember but I look around and I see presents from Aileen, Pamela, Germaine, Marcus, the protagonists, Herman, Pearleen, Derry, Tom, Mui Hiang, Sylvia and so on.
Artworks featured include those by Miss Van, Stella Im Hultberg, Fafi and Bibi, Jordi Labanda, Scott Adams (but of course), pinkytoast and so on
I use two computers
I made my wallpaper, I always have that habit
Unless you are working in the creative industry, I don’t think something like this is advisable. But being professional doesn’t mean you must perforce be dull.
See Jane Work stocks plenty of chic office supplies and they are reasonably priced. Staplers! Clipboards! Files! I’m in dork heaven.
Yum. I shall learn how to fake the Holga effect in Photoshop, right after I learn how to do the Lomo effect.
I should take up photography eh? Let’s see… after exams, I’ll resume my driving lessons. Then I’ll learn cooking. Haha.
I asked Baby if he prefers a good cook or a good pianist and he chose the former. I’ll learn but no promises. I could remain disastrous at cooking… but after my first attempt, I think the room for improvement is huge and desperately needs filling.
Quite similar to my study mantra for years “You can’t beat the top, don’t even try. But you can suck at everything first, and aim for the progress award.” Either way, people will still be impressed.
Friday: Dinner at Little India. Baby and me went to this restaurant where they lay huge banana leaves on the table and serve rice and vegetables on them. I don’t know much about Indian food I think it is super rad. We watched 10,000 BC afterwards and I found myself rolling my eyes several time at the plot’s predictability.
Saturday: Roti Prata Brekkie with Family (Lot 1) + Japanese Food for Lunch (Tiong Bahru) + CLEO Bachelor’s carnival at Zouk + Dinner at Kenny Rogers (Great World City) + Desserts at Oosh (Dempsy) + Chats at Dome (Dempsy) + Supper at Hong Kong Cafe (Siglap). Slept at 5 am that day.
Sunday: Chicken Macaroni soup for Brunch. Spent the entire afternoon working on a school report and dilly-dallying. Steamboat and BBQ dinner. So Much Food. My God. The King Prawns were scary. After dinner, Baby and me went cycling around his place on a couple of cute bicycles. Miami Ink and LA Ink before we ended our weekend. By the way, Corey from LA Ink is damn good!
I love my weekends!
Anyway, Audrey Kawasaki is selling her ‘Lacey’ print (see below) on 15 March at 9am. Bookmark this webpage for more updates! Price price is USD150 and it doesn’t include international shipping of USD20.
Sugarcoated. If I can show you the world through my eyes, these pictures would be pretty close. No black and whites. No more sepia. From today, it’ll be the now and the future.
Aileen, Meimin and me had our fortunes told at a carnival yesterday. Tarots and Numerology.
We had three very different readings and if we were to interchange them in any way, they won’t fit anymore. Maybe she can read people really well? But she said many things that were pretty accurate.
She said I’m artsy. You decide.
She said Aileen will be heading her own company. She is.
She said Meimin is in IT. She is.
Since I deal with technology, study technology… in other words, be stalked by technology. I’m sure you understand why I feel less inclined to write about tech related news. But here are some notable ones.
WordPress is developing a social networking platform for users. Watch out for BuddyPress.
Although I’m a huge Google applications fan (I cannot live without Google Reader). Netvibes kicked their ass in personal start pages. Version Ginger was rolled out few days ago, Google has a lot to catch up to.
Time does not linger. Don’t we all hate that.
But with you around, it doesn’t seem that bad
Cuz sometimes, I swear…
You know how to stop time and let it go again.
Since I started working my mum has been bugging me to buy a diamond for myself, to which I look at her in mock disgust. Pfft. Women.
Diamonds are not my best friend because they are practically useless. That goes for all jewelry, but Miss Van came up with these! So I’m torn because I love them but I can’t bring myself to buy them. They are STILL useless. I am a girl, why do I have to think like a guy?
The website is also selling prints of Miss Van’s latest paintings. Note, these are only prints. The originals are about USD30,000. And they are always instantly sold out.
Besides paying USD600 for a printed piece of paper, do you know that people are actually willing to pay for photographs of her graffiti? Whoever buys photographs of a wall right? One such person is my sister. And she gave me two of them. And I worship them every single day.
Speaking of the sister. She’s living it up in the States. Maybe she’ll bring back photographs of the recently spotted Banksy stencils in New York.
I don’t like shopping but I love stationary stores! Especially old quirky ones that sell stuff like decorative stickers, horoscope stamps, scented writing sets, autograph books plastered with illogical English phrases and various charming thingamajigs.
Half the fun is not knowing what you might find, it’s almost like an adventure. Turning round the corner and stumbling into a dusty section stocked with old paperbacks is treasure found. Borders and Kinokuniya are fine but they are not the same, explorers don’t follow nicely labeled shelves.
The site has nicely taken pictures and superb presentation, a little effort goes a long way. Anyway, I heard that you can find them in Art Box at Ang Mo Kio Hub. I can’t confirm this, maybe I’ll go check next weekend.
This weekend was fun. I went to Settler’s Cafe and kicked ass in Acquire! Dropped by Butter Factory too and had a hard time remembering how to dance. Met my old dance friends and almost couldn’t recognize them. Oops!
