Ang Bao many many, everyone!

I started today in a fairly happy mood. First of all, I'm early for work today (Yah, believe me! My colleagues thought they were hallucinating/ dreaming/ hynotised too! Gawd...). Since CNY is just around the corner, we wanted to amuse ourselves by blasting weird CNY music (Fusion of traditional and modern elements?) through our computer speakers, and laughed our heads off the moment the Or-Biang music transmit into our office air wave!

My boss, however, isn't really in the CNY mood (well, i think he's never in mood for anything). Probably no half-day or ang bao then. Sigh. Well, let it not dampen our spirits. Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone! Eat more pineapple tarts and bak kwa! Yummy Yum!

Feels like.. SCHOOL.. all over again.

It feels like a blast from the past. Eyelids heavy, impending headache, sore back, all the result of an overnight stay in the Shenton Way Torture Camp. I only managed to sleep fitfully on a highly uncomfortable make-shift bed (made up of 3 office chairs in a row). When I stared up at the ceiling made of white chip-wood board and long florescent light bulbs, only one thing came to my mind... It feels an awful lot like school all over again. Every DMD student (ex or current)is no stranger to those late nights, crazy datelines to meet and working over night in the Project Studio. Hmmm... Maybe it is only right for the school to prepare the students for the industry AKA the real world. I mean, just look at me now...

Anyway, the night's effort ain't fruitless. Here's the outcome.

The thing about friends...

I sometimes find I have too high an expection of myself. There are a million and one things I would like to achieve, to fulfill, to be dare to dream about. However, I am, sadly, an under-achiever. Or maybe I just lack the passion and drive to go all the way out to be what I want to be. I never have hit perfection, it's always the "Ok, pass can already" attitude. Yeah, I do feel like a loser sometimes. I can't seem to get anything right. From playing poor pool (for years now) to being an under-paid/ over-worked designer. I don't know my potential seriously. And I want to know. But I can't shed away that bloody "heck it" mindset that has been feasting on my inner self for the past god-knows-how-many donkey years.

However, there are a few things I'm proud of about myself. First on the list, my boyfriend. I think God has been kind to me in that sense. It's not easy to stick by someone through thick and thin, and through these years in our relationship, I realised I actually have a soulmate. It is indeed a blessing.

Secondly, my degree. It was the first time I am pleased with my result and I think I actually worked hard (did I?). I never thought I could do it, and I felt real good at the end of it eventhough I weren't the best.

Thirdly, my friends. They are the soft-spot in my life and I hold them really dear. However, to label someone as a "best friend" just seems rather immaturish to me these days. Don't get me wrong. I'm not an anti-social. I used to have "best friends" too. But what happened to them, I guess I vaguely know. Sometimes you don't know what to expect from a friend. At one point in time, you might be so fucking close, calling each other out everyday, hanging out whenever possible. You'll miss each other. There are endless topics to talk about, and before you knew it, it's day break. Your parents think that you both are homosexual. But then again, not all friendships are bound to last. Those which remain is what I wanna call "priceless". Those which fade did not really vanish totally too. I guess the distance just broaden, with work, with relationships, with different paths we take in life. It hurts. Why can't I have the "heck it" attitude in that? I tried. I failed. I felt my heart sank when my sms were left unanswered. I don't want to be disillusioned into thinking that we are still close when we are obviously not. Yes, I can be a prick sometimes. I guess it has something to do with my expections in them too. Or just maybe I am not such a good friend to them myself.

But hey, nothing in life is certain. Forgive me, I'm just whining.

MAD TV!

Do check out the classics VIDEOS on for slapstick spoofs and parodies. It cracks me up...

Mission accomplished!

My eyes are so groggy... Like the monitor in front of me is swirly. It's already time for me to head down to work. *Yawn* After 5 hours of experimenting, here's the new design.. I know the tag board looks funny. Cause it's all squeesh at the bottom due to miscalculation. Guess I'll alter it when I some other time.

NOW, I'll be heading down to TORTURE CAMP in Shenton Way...

Working on a new blog skin

Finally, I have got my lazy ass of the sofa and start working on my new blog skin design. I have been wanting to change the design for ages now. So tonight, under the influence of the cold chilly rainy night (yeah I know, I should be snuggling in bed under my comforter), I'm going to try to come out with something new. But I haven't have anything in mind. I'll have to meet the Z-monster tomorrow night... Ok.. Maybe later at work, if coffee doesn't perform its miracles.. haha..

Checking out the next dressing room...

This is the time of the year that I dread the most. The darn one month period before Lunar New Year. Beside the all-so-familiar awful Ching-chong LNY tunes blasting at every possible heartland shopping malls, shoppers are seeing RED everywhere, literally. Wearing red is such a cliche during LNY. Well, at least it is a good chance for retail stores to be bringing out their outdated stocks of whatever in red, maroon, pink, simply anything in the shade of red.

I seriously don't sense the joy of shopping pre-LNY. First of all, I don't like red or orange or maroon, ok, maybe pink and purple is alright. Secondly, I don't like the idea of forcing yourself to buy something. It's like a waste of my money spending on some clothes I won't be wearing very often (eg. the red cheong sam I bought last year). Thirdly, I am disgusted by the very nature of the female gender to out dress each other. You can see the cattiness in each of the ladies' eyes in the fitting room. They will peer over your mirror to check you out. If they think you look good, they will either pick the similar piece to try on or find another item that will outshine yours. Suddenly, the narrow aisle of the fitting area has transformed into a mini-runway. The ladies will be strutting up and down, in and out of the changing rooms, posing in front of the full length mirror, confronted by dilemmas, envy and confusion. And at the end of the day, they will still end up buying more or less the same design, in the few perceived "auspicious" colours. For example, I was queuing up to try on a pair of jeans at Mango. In front of me, I saw 3 ladies trying on identical knitted tops of different sizes. It looks as if they were buying uniforms or something.

Another part of the tradition leading to LNY, which I absolutely loathed, is: SPRING CLEANING! Friends who actually knows me are undeniably convinced that I am a mess. I lived in a "sty" with 3 rodent-like friends (my hamsters). And I actually like my room a little messy, which is in an intolerably unacceptable state to usher in the LNY. So I have to get my ass off the sofa, roll my sleeve up and wipe the dust off the shelves. And the worst part is to bear is... my parents' constant annoying nags...

So all in all, I must sum up that I am going to stay grumpy... Hmmm... At least until the Ang Bao money starts rolling in... haha... *_*

Memoirs of a geisha

Memoirs of a geisha
Originally uploaded by candice_dymphna_ng.

Never in film history has Asian chicks rock Hollywood on such a massive scale. Haha... Nah.. I'm just exaggerating.. But I think this flick is gonna make us Asian girls ooze extra sex appeal.

There's still exactly 2 more weeks till the film opens. And the anticipation is killing me. I hope the film will be as good as the paperback. It is one of my favourite stories. Though Zhang Zi Yi is the lead actress, somehow I find Gong Li is the one who actually captured my attention. Check out her look in this picture man. It just spells one word, "SEDUCTION".

So girls, to learn the art of seduction, the geisha way, go book a ticket.

Memoirs of a geisha open on 19 January 2006.

Cruella De Vil will enjoy seeing this...

Cruella De Vil will enjoy seeing this...
Originally uploaded by candice_dymphna_ng.

Whoever ever ever thinks that fur is beautiful? The cavemen donned it. But if given the knowledge to produce cotton, will they still wear fur? With Cruella De Vil as an exception, I bet the average Joe/ Jill like you and me won't find it appealing... Not after watching THIS!!!

*Not for obsessive animal lovers or the faint in the heart. Get the puke bags ready if you can't take gore and blood