Another reason, apart from the MT tape exhibition, to drop by ION is the NOISE art festival being held at B4. It showcases artworks by young artists & designers - and this year is particularly good.

Take a look at the (horribly shot) video of the exhibition. The quality of the works really shines through and there were so many noteworthy artists whoes artworks I wanna buy (if possible) and display in a glass frame in my room.


Argh, it can't be embedded can it? Please go to the link then: https://vimeo.com/71423218

 I mean look at these illustrations here, unbelievable! Mad skills and all.

Who is this Chong Yi fella and how is his fingerprints not worn off by doing these sketches?!

Some of the coolest take-aways from the exhibition. And the newsprint NOISE catalogue must have cost a bomb to print & produce (see the video near the last part), and they gave it away for FREE? (Steals all the free stuff)! Wow, the amount of care and money pumped into this event must have been astronomical. Applause. It makes me glad to know that Singapore does have many artistic talents. Cynical pundits step aside.

Dinner at Cedele, Raffles City. Cedele is one of those eateries I never have worries over ordering. I don't think I've ever eaten a bad dish from them. Oh wait, yes I have. It's their banana walnut cake slice. Other than that, everything else is pure gold.

If you're in town (specifically ION Orchard), you can catch the MT tape exhibition at the aforesaid mall. It's more of a showcase of the obscene amount of tapes they have for sale than an actual exhibition, although they do have a small corner for DIY tape tryouts and a craft workshop which cost $35 to register. 

Humourless people who organise their lives around boring monochrome colours, stay far far away from this.

$4-$9 for masking tape may sound ridiculous. And it is. If your sole purpose for tape is to bandage some unfortunate slipper. But the MT tape comes in such sheer variety it actually takes the form of 'art'. Well, not art really, but something that can be used to beautify other things, which you can in turn brag about to others, who will thereafter bow down to you and your awesome crafty abilities. That is, if you have some sense of colour coordination and NOT mess it up like I did 2 posts ago.

Yes. Chairs. And instant wallpapers. I cannot fathom how anyone would have the patience to unfurl cm² after cm² of these tapes. Across. The. Whole. Floor.

Another thing about MT tape, they leave no residue whatsoever. Heaven! Now if only book shops could use MT tape for their pricing lables....

Through the dedicated patience of Shuning in the studio of Popin, I finally succeeded in knitting a loin cloth for my robot, Veronica. This is going up on my display case.

Odd-legged pantaloons coming up next!

Yesterday we half celebrated my older sister's birthday because everyone was dead tired for some reason. I think some family members fell asleep in the cake. But the cake (which was in fact a tart from Fruit Paradise) was so delicious it made everyone wake up with zeal and vigorously sing Happy Birthday!!! at the top of their lungs. Or so I think. But I might have been mistaken.

Before that episode, I was wrapping a present for her. It was a book about two of the second and thrid most important things in life: friendship and death. It's a book by Jory John and Avery Monsen and had dinosaurs and robots in it - she will like it. I'm sure. Or I may be wrong.

Well, I was wrapping the present for her and I attempted to tie a blue ribbon in a cross shape. Unfortunately, my skills were not up to scratch plus my ribbon was not long enough which ended up in an ugly UGLY knot bunched up at the most unceremonious place of the present - right in the glorious middle of it!

I snipped off the excess ribbon from the knot - which did not improve its appearance in any way.

Like a guilty kid, I decided to cover up that blight with - AHA! Tape! Yes. MT tape will solve everything~ don't they make it look so simple in Japaese craft blogs? Like I never learnt from my black window A3 paper fiasco.

Here is the results (front & back). Prepare to be horrified.

 Never ever pile washi tape atop one another thinking that more is better. It is not.
It's the thought that counts, but some thoughts that are beyond salvage should never have been executed in the first place.

I've realised something. Everything in my life, everything that I've been doing until now is all meaningless meaningless meaningless.

Right now when I'm fretting over my career choices, worrying whether I'll get that dream job, swearing to God up & down what I'll do for Him if I could only get that job.... Please please God.... just give me that job.... It hit me. 

I was praying for the wrong thing.

And it hit me even harder, that I've been praying for the wrong things all my life. All my life! All 24 years of it. What was I praying for? 'God, give me this... God, give me that', as if God was some 招财猫 who exists solely to grant my wishes. And I know that I act this way when I'm unsure of myself because I'm vulnerable now. Where do I go from here?

My career is not important. In fact, whatever job I get is also unimportant. I could land the crappiest job ever with the tiniest pay ever and that is absolutely unimportant. Because what matters most is do I love Him enough? And how much love I can show others. That's what I should be praying for. That's what's important.

Books Actually was having a 30% sale.
You know how I get when book stores have massive sales - I become some psychotic take-my-money!!!!!! spendthrift beast.

Spendthrift brain: OoooOooH... Sale!! And 30% some more! You don't get such an opportunity every month. Time to break the bank and stock up on books.

Frugal brain: No! I can't! I already have 6 books that I bought at the last sale and haven't yet read them. What are they for? Paperweights?! Fool! Read them first before you add more to their lonely cousins.

Spendthrift brain: Oh ho! But I will read them! I will... when I'm more ...  free?

Frugal brain: You won't read them. When you buy books, you only buy the illusion of the time to read them, dummy.

Spendthrift brain: Then it's money well spent. For my life is an illusion built on the bodies of dead books.

Frugal brain: You will become a dead body when you have no money to sustain your life. The real life, I mean. Not the one in your head.

Spendthrift brain: Sigh... you're right. I should be more responsible with my money and - Look at that gorgeous dust jacket!! (Buys 1 hardcover book, 1 paperback and a magazine and leaves the shop infinitely poorer with books in the hand and guilt on the face, wondering how did it turn out that way.)

One of the books I got which was a SIGNED COPY! Bang My Car by Ann Ang. This is the funniest book I've read this week! And so true.

I dunno why but this is my favourite part:

23: I want to tell him so many things, show him so many things, but I don't know how to say, maybe the thing also not there anymore.

(brief silence)

A: How about your wife?

23: My wife is my wife loh.

The End.

I friggin burst out laughing. For. No. Reason. At. All.

Aww man, I wonder if all those artsy fartsy indie magazines had been lying to us all the time. How is it remotely possible that a person - you tell me - that a human being can survive off making niche knick-knacks they do?? How? HOW? Tell me how?

How is it  that Mr. Red Checkered Shirt (they always wear checkers in some form or another) in his fancy beret and linen scarf around his neck gets a 4-page spread about how he 'thoroughly enjoys doing what he loves to do for a living' by making customised painted twigs as a full-time job. Or how Miss Oversized Sunglasses who grows organic turnips in moss-lined tin cans is being interviewed out of the her gorgeous 8-room village cottage. Hey, I'd love to sell organic turnips and paint twigs too. But unless they go for $200 a pop I'll be living out of a cardboard box and wearing plastic bags. Reading art indie zines is like fantasy brain-porn where the idealised artist is presented as some fairy who toils happily away in comfort and bliss. No bills to pay, no taxes to file, no mouths to feed and no ugly reality to face. Oh, and that beautiful sunlit studio/atelier they all have where everyone sits around and sip tea while strumming on a vintage guitar. Is it all pure photographic powder?

I thought being an artist was all fun and games.
But it was only how it looked in the light.