syelni

The oddness of our lives

2012-01-27T20:06:00.003+08:00

In a city without humans the furniture sleeps. Dreaming dreams of wood & rust.

Haunted by humans

2012-01-19T20:52:00.007+08:00

I rarely smiled when I was young.
Most of my toddler photographs are characterized by the same bewildered & slightly dumb look staring at some far-off wherever. A morose & vague girl lost in her own world.

Why the sudden spate of childhood nostalgia?
Well, I can't seem to move on in life.
I think I'm a person who is stuck in the past - trapped in my own little planet of ghosts & stardust. I pop my head out into the real world for just a tiny while & realised that it has marched on without me so I curl back into my wonderland & slowly waste away. This is the disease that I've had since young, I think.

Mortars & cracks

2012-01-14T16:23:00.002+08:00

We grow up in the city, we think like the city, we weep like the city - casualpoet

崭新的一年

2012-01-04T13:07:00.004+08:00

I know it's still a few weeks more, but hey, my family already had our reunion dinner! (Due in part to my dad's club restaurant voucher that he was desperate to use before expiry)

Time to keep the Christmas tree & break out the pussy willows in giant porcelain vases (I swear we decorate it in the exact same way we do up the Christmas tree, just with different ornaments). The mistletoe & cowbell ornaments are swapped with peony blossoms & the 'Merry Christmas' Santa carboard cutout replaced with 春联. It's like, to save the trouble of rethinking the decor for each season, my mum has devised a way to simply replace the existing season decoration tit-for-tat. Smooth mummy, smooth...

Beyond vapours

2012-01-01T21:43:00.005+08:00

Being an adult is too heart-breaking,
so be a whale.

The Supermama of Agrabaga

2011-12-19T22:21:00.006+08:00

This is an incredibly pretty shop just outside Bras Basar Complex along Seah Street that sells gorgeous crafts & charming wooden knick knacks. People who love natural material & guileless designs should check it out.

When I went there, they were having a kind of local exercise books exhibition where they display (& sell) modified rustic excercise books that comes in all shapes, sizes & lining. (OoOooh, I remember the dreaded gridded ones with paper so thin you'd never fail to rub a hole everytime you attempt to erase something)

Supermama

Transportation woes & a dreary wet week has kept me in the house, really. Now, all I want to do is snuggle in my bed & read a good book.

Land of Smiles

2011-12-12T21:06:00.008+08:00

☆

There is something about Thailand - its superb food, rich culture, great scenery and also some of the friendliest people this side of SEA - that makes it such a lovely country.

这寂寞的雪地

2011-11-27T16:47:00.004+08:00

I absolutely adore this artist's works.
Especially her artwork novel series, My Way (我的路), filled with stardust & sorrow.
I can't find her books anywhere in S'pore except in the library & the China publisher doesn't ship to S'pore *heart breaks* - so now I'm contemplating on borrowing the book, never return it, pay the fine & live happily ever after.

*Oh, dear. Lydia resorting to robbing libraries?! Tsk tsk.*

寂地

白暂鸡宝宝

2011-11-19T23:08:00.005+08:00

Oh those psychedelic moments when you look through your baby photos & go 'the hell...' at the ridiculousness of the poses snapped. Yes, that's me being used as a human mop.

Mum to Grace, "Look at the camera, act constipated & Smmiiillee!!!"

Why am I looking through baby photos when I'm supposed to be studying for painful exams?? Because the number of days to the exams are inversely proportional to the rate of procastination. That's why.

Mecha mecha grease monkey

2011-11-12T21:30:00.004+08:00

Time to plug in my wires and oil those brain gears. The ritual cyborgdization every semester will commence!!

Lotus Regeneration

2011-11-05T16:32:00.005+08:00

Making of the hard cover book:
Hardcover books has always been nerve wrecking affair for me. From the point you smear glue all over your cardboard pieces to the dastardly in-pages *I truly revile in-pages*, the risk of a badly done book casing or the odd air bubble is always imminent.
But, I'm glad this turned out ok!

Above: While I loath gluing in-pages, I'm really please with my water droplets pattern! *blush*

That's the hard cover all done & ready for the book block!

Voila! Muahahaha!!
Couldn't stop touching and admiring my book after it's finished. Stroking its smooth cover and giggling insanely to myself of a job well done. Yes, I'm a book pervert. A mighty proud one.

Droplets of worry

2011-10-29T23:45:00.005+08:00

这几天超级无敌忙!! Pardon me, so here is another ultra lazy post with more of the stuff I'm doing.
Mui fan & Tom Yam soup that looks nothing like it! Whoo hoo~
I realise my scanner saturates the colours of anything I scan, even after correcting the settings. This gives my paintings a more vibrant look & washes out the minor flaws. On the flip side, I notice many of my pastel watercolour details are lost.... Oh bugger!

与水共生

2011-10-21T21:23:00.004+08:00

This is the current project I'm working on, among other things. Will be busy busy busy.

Of Little Days & Tiny People

2011-10-08T22:25:00.007+08:00

I love siblings. I really do.

Granted they are quite horrible when young. I remember when my big sis loved stabbing me with a mechanical pencil, with the lead out, that little brat. And when my younger brother twisted staple bullets into barb bombs & stuffed them into my pillow, redefining how sadistic stationery is deployed in family warfare.

Now, they are all grown up & smelling of roses.
In fact, my sister bought me a beautiful grand bag the other day. Oh thank you! Hard to imagine her as that fiendish terror she was a decade ago. I cringe to imagine what kind of annoying monster I most definitely took the form too.

Above is a painting I made for her that is now gloriously framed up above her bed post.

Another picture of the week is this.

Boats made out of the aluminium wrapper of a square of chocolate, populated upon by tiny tiny people the size of your thumbnail. Yes, shoo is at it again. Carving out humans from microscopic bits of clay. 'Ware the rise of the tiny people! They'll be up your nostrils in a trice & pulling your brains out through said orifice!

Also, MAAD!!!
Yes! More fabric goodness brought to you by the dexterous duo!

Momshoo & their knitted wonders of yarn.

Ok, I guess I'd better go do homework. Yes, blogging is a delightful way of procastinating work. Oh yes, let me type a bit more.... oooHhhfksafalbf ad fkahsdf fkjshdfa fjahsfhjaj ahahaha..... OK okaaa---aaaaay..... dragging myself to work now......! TO WORK!

Hot afternoon & painting away

2011-09-29T19:23:00.005+08:00

The weather these days is searingly hot in the day & bitterly cold at night. Singapore must be turning into another Sahara, I'm sure.

2011-09-23T20:02:00.005+08:00

With inflation going up, I wonder how living in sunny island Singapore will be like in the coming years. I remember back in Primary school, my parents would snidely observe how our generation has gone all soft & easy. We are a molly coddled age of internet and instant gratification - fat with too much food & love.

Yes, we are. But we face a tougher world. A harsher future. Where once what made a good employee was hardwork, punctuality & obedience, now we require creativity, lightning fast adaptibility & constant upgrade.

This makes me wonder how the hell the next generation will cope in such a pressure cooker & hugely expensive society. I guess sooner or later we'll all forget what it means to be human - running this absurd rat race of the 21st century.

pic via ffffound.com

The girl who got old

2011-09-16T23:59:00.005+08:00

All I want to do is to sit back in some worn out plastic chair, infront of some place old and nostalgic. A place filled with memories & stories & grime & listlessness & wistfulness & age.
Some place without shiny chrome finishings or pompus minimalism or any of that Apple-age crap.
A place filled with vegetation & dampness & decay. Full of wrinkly old people sitting on their personal worn out plastic chairs and glowering at any passerbys.

Youth is wasted on me. I should have just transitioned between adolescence & senior citizen without having to grow into an adult. Being an adult is one tough job. Argh.

Dialogue of a designer to an engineer

2011-09-09T16:59:00.003+08:00

... he looked inscrutable, I have said something alien.
Anything he doesn't understand is alien.
Anything that is alien is bad.

You know what? It could be bad.

It could be the worst decision I've made in my whole entire life.
But you know what makes a hero a hero?
It's that he did the stupidest thing, like jumping into a churning river without a life jacket, and lived.
If he died, he'd just be another stupid crazy man who should have stayed ashore.
But he lived. So he's a hero.
Let's see if I survive, ok?

Crazy in my Bazzy

2011-09-06T00:22:00.003+08:00

I've never before in my life as an art student slept over in school because of homework.
What??? Never? Sacrilege! An art student should be the most unkempt, zombiefied and sleep-deprived being that roamed the earth.

Well, now I join the ranks of wretched children whose unwashed bodies permeate the air of ADM. That smell of sweat, blood & maybe tinge of soul-sucking despair.

I'm glad it's over. Almost.

Tumble in the roses

2011-08-26T20:32:00.005+08:00

Long long long years after everyone jumped onto the Tumblr bandwagon, a hibernating reptile, me, has finally gotten its blood warmed up to start an account.

Well, technically I have blogged on Tumblr last year. But that doesn't count because it was done under duress & excruciating unwillingness.
Relax, I won't be shifting my blog over to Tumblr just yet. Blogger, despite all its inadequacies still holds a special place in my heart. Yadda, yadda. Yes, I'm an rusty dinosaur *call in the museum & take away this social media fossil*

My Tumblr: salty-radio.tumblr.com . Do check it out.

This Tumblr gig will be my 3rd active blog (together with blogger & wordpress) & the Flickr. Whoa, I impress myself.

Road to enlightenment

2011-08-19T23:29:00.003+08:00

Trudging 4 hours to & from school, yet again.
I remember before I entered uni, I used to balk at the idea of any journey around Singapore taking more than 70 min. Now I do it everyday lugging a bedamned laptop.

Well, what can I say about my life?

I'm taking Asian Horror Film *alone* on tuesdays & Forensic science the next day. Nothing more refreshing than getting your wits scared outta you by blood-splattered avenging female spirits one day then fed a boat-load of decomposing carcasses the next.

Well, I asked for it.

Eyes filled with cotton

2011-08-13T10:10:00.005+08:00

MAAD bazaars are great places to find quirky, handmade thingys comparable to the eclectic tosh we find in Haji Lane or lifestyle stores.
I went there yesterday to visit my ultra-talented friend, Momshoo, who can shoot laser beams outta her eyes & make stuff that I like.

MAAD is at the Red Dot. Balloons and vodka galore.

The bazaar also houses an exhibition of *I'm guessing* German publication design. Or Norwegian interior design. Or something. Hugely interesting, a pity I couldn't read a word.

Momshoo here with her booth stuffed with craft goodness. In my personal opinion, has some of the most interesting wares next to the mohawk shaving barbers & psychedelic guache paintings.

I remember coming to last year's MAAD with the gang to sell notebooks & stickers. A financial disaster of hilarious proportions that taught us perhaps sticking cigarette butts on bags would have been a better investment.

Take a gander at them cute cotton creatures! Rabbits, owls & cats & monsters! Yes, all the stuff I love best!

Bells of Terror

2011-08-12T10:45:00.006+08:00

This Add/Drop period is sapping my life juice.
That creeping feeling of hope you have when catching the off chance a seat appears, then the cruel wrenching despair when a fat '0' appears the next time you refresh the page.

Anyway, I've been hooked on Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame ever since I saw that part of Frollo, the insane judge, singing menacingly at the fireplace.
Truely, this is one of the most underrated Disney films ever. That sequence alone deserves a standing ovation & a few Academy awards.

A good-looking man with amazing cheekbones.

Phoebus? Blah! What's he got but blond hair & an awful goatee? Even Quasimodo was a tad bland in the story. Esmeralda should have gone with Frollo, I think. He has both pathos & good looks & man alive, can he carry a tune!

My opinion, the best Disney villain ever.

Watch (click)

Crank back art

2011-08-04T11:06:00.008+08:00

School is drawing nigh. It's time to grow up, be a Year 3 - pass, be a Year 4, graduate, go to work, start a family - grow old.

At least it'll get my dad off my back. My dad absolutely hates people who don't work if they are free. Well, I'm slightly guilty. But honest, I don't spend - so I don't need to get money! Income output, remember? Doesn't matter if you earn a million but spend a billion. You'd still be poor.

Ok, I'm not all that idle.
These were some stuff I did in the hols. click to enlarge.

Bears & penguins. With water colour. After reading Oliver Jeffers books, I had an inexorable compulsion to draw more penguins. & more!!!!

This was a set of 3 badges for a gospel rally. I love the 'hope'~

Supernova Pie Power

2011-07-28T19:58:00.005+08:00

If you are already sick of reading about my self-aggrandizing attempts at baking, have fear. For this is another one! *enter chicken pot pie*

The recipe came from Nigella (here), it's really hard to concentrate writing down the recipe with her sultry looks & smoldering eyes boring into my brain. You watch & you try. Shan came over to help, because I make a total mess of things if left on my own.

Pies ready for the oven! (Puff pastry is store-bought because, curiously, while you can't find normal pre-made pie crust anywhere in S'pore, frozen puff pastry are everywhere.)

20 mins baking.

Out they come! All golden brown & crispy.

If you're wondering why some are bigger than the others, it's because I only have 2 ramekins in the kitchen. I used rice bowls for the other 2. Still works!

Tasty, steamy fillings. Yum!

Our Plastic World

2011-07-24T23:18:00.006+08:00

click to enlarge

Had too much fun with shrinking plastic yesterday.
I'm on a major penguin craze right now. Must be because of Oliver Jeffers.

Lemon Restoration

2011-07-17T22:11:00.010+08:00

I'm not a huge fan of bagels. But I couldn't resist stepping into this pretty furniture/bagel shop along Tanjong Pagar road. I'm a sucker for such things.

Stepped out of the blinding Singapore afternoon sun into the eclectic furnished cafe.

They've somehow managed to jam vintage furniture for sale together with the cafe in a space no bigger than a HDB corridor. Applause.

Got myself a honey wholewheat bagel at $6, with caramel cream cheese on the side. $6 may seem steep for bread - but this bagel is so filling it's like having a Big Mac. The bread is so fresh you can feel the goodness popping in your mouth with every bite, but it's also so dense my jaw felt tired after munching the first half.

Seriously can eat a whole cup of caramel cream cheese on its own.

My favourite vintage chair there is this unbelievably cute Russian doll chair! AAAaaaaHH! I waaant!

here

Day in the Life of a Bookworm

2011-07-12T13:26:00.012+08:00

Books Actually had an exhibition of a boat load of Penguin books!
Book enthusiasts should check this out. You get a full dosage of heady nostalgia from the gorgeous array of Penguin books they have there.

Below is Shuning's entry for a Penguin books alternative cover. Very Shuning. She must have worn her fingerprints out fiddling with those tiny cloth bits.

Just the day after, I went down to Holland V to oogle at my favourite online cute shop - the Little Happy Shop - that is finally going brick & motar!

I rarely shop online so this is heaven-sent! Gaarrr... *cuteness explosion*
Incidentally, they are also selling tickets for the Ode to Penguin exhibit. $6 for students!

☆

On to my questing over the hills of Singapore ...
Yesterday, I passed by this handsome reading cafe called the Books Cellar.
Oooh~ The ambience is fantastic. Moody yet cosy - like an Italian salon, if such a thing existed.

Dark masculine panelling & old typewriters & a pool table at the back. I went in at 3pm in the afternoon so it was pretty quiet. Quiet but perfect.

It's filled top to toe with my kinda books~ yeah.... lotsa Stephen King, horror, political thrillers and James Patterson. Next to Lee Child, Patterson is my favourite thriller author. Read him!

That's it!
☆☆☆

Ode to Penguin → here | Little Happy Shop → here | Books Cellar pics taken from → here

Ebbing beating life

2011-07-04T21:52:00.006+08:00

Qing Ming festival was over eons ago, but I didn't develop the film until recently so here is this year's grave cleaning shots.

In the past, my dad would drive us to the cemetery waaay too early in the morning like 5am to beat the crowds, although we always get stuck in massive car queues that stretch from the cemetery to the moon. Now we go in the afternoon.

My cousin & bro lighting giant red candles. They act as timers. We leave when the candle burns out.

The most fun part is burning paper money. Everyone fights for a chance at it. Lucky Esther.
~~~
In a sudden epiphany that I could actually create things that are edible (false), I made a mille crepe cake yesterday! Everyone knows how rare is it to find good mille crepe cakes in Singapore & how much work goes into making it, so I'm blown away by the results.

Strange things from a blue era

2011-06-28T21:09:00.005+08:00

When we were kids, blankets looked like magic carpets, tables were fortresses to barricade with sofa cushions & clothes hangers were swords.

Putting aside my brother's ridiculous 'Turkish' hat probably stapled together from a discarded party plate & an A3 drawing block, I'm delighted at my multi-coloured striped pants. I really want to find pants like that again.

Pie day & robots.

2011-06-25T19:13:00.006+08:00

I made Pie !!

Helped along by my bro, Agnes & Chef John who lives in America but has lovingly bestowed upon us his awesome cooking video.
Watch how to make apple pie here (click).

Yes, the pie crust is hand-made.

Apple pie outta the oven & nicely browned!

We modestly added our initials onto the pie just in case some other family member eats it & wants to know who created this confection of perfection. Chef John did not get his initials on because we ran out of dough. And we forgot.

Served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream & swoon in apple laced addiction.

I painted an orange robot because I like robots & an orange robot rocks my socks off.

The allure of cold air & sunshine

2011-06-19T22:12:00.010+08:00

I really needed the mountains. The crisp icy air. That spiritual rejuvenation.
I escaped into the highlands to commune with the divine & now I've returned to my dense, concrete jungle home where I yearn to run away into isolation & solitude yet again.

Well, I can't. I've got my confounded Core Selection to fret over. So I'll just content myself with listening to Angus & Julia Stone and dream of green fields & freedom.

Malaysia's scenery is breathtaking. More on Flickr (click)!

I've still to upload the gakkenflex shots but I'm really tired now. Sleeps... ....

Lonely Planet

2011-06-12T17:20:00.003+08:00

10 years ago, I made a pilgrimage to what I thought was my last church camp. Surprise, 10 years older - I'm going there again. Hello 10 hour bus-ride.

Wreathed in Fumes of Tea

2011-06-07T20:23:00.009+08:00

Have you ever explored the Mandarin Gallery?
Its facade of polished marble walls & sky-high glass ceilings screams at all cash-strapped students to give it wide berth.

Not if you're a coupon wielding student, of course. Brandishing a 51% off special meal ticket - my friends & I meekly went exploring this giant cavern of marble opulence - right into a cafe called Arteastiq.

An immaculate lounge room with set designs so sharp you could cut yourself on it. The cafe itself oozes aristocratic charm, it's delightful ambience marred only by the unreasonably low tea table.

Arteastiq is known for its home-brewed tea.
Our tea arrived on a wooden tray with dainty glassware containing honey or sugar cubes to sweeten your tea, if you so wish, & a side of biscuits.

I got a Viva la Fiesta La something something Tortilla. It was about ten words long & sounded more foreign than an ang moh speaking Singlish. You know what? Next time if I ever open a posh restaurant, I'll call the plain fish & chips Aqua Animalia de la Tuberosum Plantae & sell it for $19.

Anyway, it was duck wrapped in tortilla. And it was delicious. But slightly tiny.
The side of salad came in a tiny glass cup. And, get this, no cutlery.
The only thing on the plate that came close to being a fork was the toothpick stuck into my tortilla. Let me tell you, eating a salad with a toothpick will guarantee you loose more weight than you consume.

The food was good & the tea was superb. MMMmmm.
But the normal price for this is $33 and the discout made it $17. In fact, the tea itself on a normal day would cost $12 a pot. Ouch. Arteastiq is THE place for tai tais & guys who want to impress their girlfriends (it sure impressed the heck outta me).
It's really good but very, very over-priced.
Hello $1.20 teh beng!

Washing Our Tears All Away

2011-06-02T22:28:00.006+08:00

That's my printed rain drop dress, yes, in acrylic.

I've been assured that fabric paint & acrylic are very much interchangable & the latter is widely used to paint clothes. So there.

I initially wanted to carve out fancy swirls on my rubber stamps & spotted this 'wood-carving' tool set in Daiso that reportedly carves rubber too. LIES! This useless duo carves wood and rubber like a broken toothpick. Don't be cheap & buy yourself a proper rubber carving set from Popular at $7+.

I settled with hacking the lino pad with a blunt scissors & a sharp penknife.

To make the handle of the rubber stamp, cut off sections of a used eraser & primitively stick them on the back of the stamp with UHU glue. I used that iconic blue & white eraser that comes with our secondary school Oxford Mathematical instrument set. Damn! That eraser is hard as heck. How did anyone erase anything with that without ripping holes in their graph paper amazes me.

Mix the desired colours & thin it out with water. Don't apply too thick a coat or the pattern will peel. Stamping gives a 'watery' speckled look that I absolutely love love love to bits!
Leave the paint to dry completely overnight & iron it a bit. Voila!

Boots on, Let's Run Away.

2011-05-30T13:48:00.005+08:00

There is something immortally sad, sir;
of being intoxicated with the ocean.

What does this have to do with a watery owl & his carrot?
NOTHING!
But it is the beginning of what I'm going to do this holiday. Paint! I'm going to paint my life away! Robots and silly animals - I'll paint only things that make me happy.

I'll print rain-drop patterns on my dress and sew myself a new cardigan. Then I'll take my beloved plastic cameras & run all over Singapore taking artistic 'blurry' photos and spend a fortune developing them, no doubt.

Then I'm gonna fly to the moon with my jet-propelled butt and paint it bright garish yellow all over with a big smiley face & a dash of crimson at the corner so that back on earth, it'll look like the Comedian's badge from the Watchmen. Then I'll fly back home & watch Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy non-stop while eating chendol & hokkien mee - at the same time.

Oh, that invincible feeling you get when the holidays start.

Past Elysium

2011-05-26T23:36:00.006+08:00

I was listening to a friend mention how blogs are a thing of the past.
No one reads long boring posts about people's life anymore.
No one is interested in your online diary of painfully dreary events.
Razor fast Twitter & Facebook status updates are the Now - goodbye ole' blogs, you're just a platform for pretty pictures & the occasional sarcastic rantings.

I agree with her. It's true.

No one wants to type out whole sentences anymore, worrying about how the prose sounds and whether your grammar is spot on. It's damn tiring trying to think of how to open a blog post, how to structure the body & how to end it without sounding like a total blithering cretin.
It's so much easier to chuck out a "HOT LIKE HELL 2DAY, LOL :(" on Twitter than to cough out a "That merciless ball of flaming killer sambal star called the sun decided to kill all human beings on the earth today by ruthless ... ..." etc. etc. Needless verbiage.

Perhaps that's why I never caught up to the Twitter and Facebook rapid-fire status updates about your personal life. I'm a dead old fashion literary antique.

I can't appreciate reading words grabbed out from thin air with nary any background story whatsover, strung together on barely-there grammar & spelling & blared into your face like the climax of an Avery cartoon.

That's why I still love reading well-written blog posts. I'd rather read beautiful verbiage than ugly, character-limited remarks that add no value whatsoever to my life.
*Abrupt post end*

obligatory pretty pics from here.

Foolish Things

2011-05-23T18:36:00.009+08:00

Let's be free fools for a moment.
I'll put on my magic sneakers
& run into the clouds up there.

I won't fall down because I'm a god;
That foolish god with magic sneakers.

☆

Crusty Memories & Chocolate Cakes

2011-05-16T15:17:00.004+08:00

You see how huge my chocolate birthday cake is?
There is more cake than there is birthday girl.

Why this wu liao post?
Ask the cosmos!
The tripartite realms of chocolate, cake and icing sugar are pierced resolutely through by the plastic stem of the candles - it is the axis in which we understand happiness by.

Trajection Scream

2011-05-14T08:51:00.001+08:00

After a horrific experience with the marketing paper, (that was surely the most dreadful exam I've ever committed to paper) I pray that the 'kind' teachers will do good on their promise that 'no one ever fails marketing'.

On the other hand, did I mention that East Asian art was tough?
Well, South East Asian art is tougher. And messier than a relationship on Days of Our Lives. Cultures start to unforgivingly blur into one another & you are left sorting out names longer than 10 alphabets and temples that look alike but aren't.

Heaven Save Me

2011-05-09T15:39:00.001+08:00

Sapped Juices

2011-05-06T22:33:00.004+08:00

So you see...

I have to listen to 12 lectures. Each lasting 1.5 hr. That makes it 18 hrs worth of staring at the computer listening to his mind-numbingly dull voice drone on at twice the negative speed of sound.
This followed by a reading session of my least favourite kind of book ... The Textbook.

I am not enjoying this.

Tilda Swinton

2011-05-03T01:00:00.006+08:00

If ever there were fairies in the world. She'd be one.

The Quiet Iorich

2011-04-27T11:50:00.004+08:00

Oho!
By the gleaming treasures of El Dorado, I bore my trove back home.
Finally, after waiting for most part of the year I get to complete my Steven Brust Taltos collection. I have an incredible urge to rub my palms in gleeful rapture & cackle like a Disney witch.

Kee hee hee.... Ho hahaha.... Muah hahahah! *Goes off to poison some apples then falls down stairs in debiliting happiness*

Weary Human Being

2011-04-22T20:48:00.005+08:00

I'm just joking!

I love it. I love it love it love it love it love it! I repeat this to myself several times.

Wandering Mercator

2011-04-17T23:08:00.005+08:00

Maps! I need a spanking map on my wall now!
Preferably one with livid sea creatures and the occasional dragon.

Love Lost

2011-04-14T21:23:00.002+08:00

In addition to listening to too much Jay Chou songs, I'm also looping Temper Trap's Love Lost like crazy.

There is something about forlorn looking youths dashing blindly through a muddy English landscape while wailing to the camera that rubs your heart raw.
It must be a real pain to be lip-syncing while running out of breath.

here

Rebirth and Decay and Drugs

2011-04-13T18:48:00.003+08:00

My life, currently, is a never ending cycle of tragedy and deadlines. Tragedy, then deadlines - then tragedy then deadlines. Escaping from this samsara would require either divine help from Sir Nataraja or a quick bullet to the head.

Or a lot of coffee.

Joe Black

2011-04-12T19:25:00.009+08:00

Give me a cup of coffee. I need the adrenaline to face my death.

here.

Overheard Titanic

2011-04-11T17:55:00.006+08:00

I'll go back to work now.

here.

Curly Dream Threads

2011-04-09T16:30:00.006+08:00

Black is a classic colour.
Every time someone uses a lot of black and white in their work, they describe it as minimalistic, stylishly slick and full of zen-like wisdom meditating in its inky pool of colour supremacy.

Well, in my opinion, black is BORING.

Especially on shoes.
THIS is what I want shodding my rainbow-coloured sock clad feet all day.

And THIS is what I want to wear out when it rains.

From Supermarket Sarah. I love this shop to bits!

here.

Rise and Dine

2011-04-03T18:59:00.005+08:00

This is the best ever place to eat eggs.
Snuggled in some forsaken place out in Evans lodge.

Hatched

Bury me in the clothes of my youth

2011-03-29T19:25:00.005+08:00

I was looking through my early posts just when I started blogging and realise just how depressingly angsty I was then. Whiny and caustic and decidedly sullen.

I hope I've grown up. I hope I've matured.
I look back at my teenage angsty-ness with dread & wonder how could I have ever been so young.
Am I perilously close to being mushy now?

Here is a blue rabbit I did to cheer you up!

This Damp Copper

2011-03-25T21:58:00.010+08:00

The second roll of film came back from the shop (yes, I'm a bit late in this) with smashing results.
Despite my trepidation that 400 might not render well - it performed spectacularly.

It's really strange that when I compare 800 with 400, the 400 film seems just a tad blurrier. How is that possible? Haha - don't know. Schizophrenic film.

I run through film much faster with the cigarrete cam since it's so easy to snap pictures with it! Damn, I haven't even finished a roll with my gakken since school started 2 months ago. Will I even be rid of my plastic camera fever? I think not.

View more on flickr here~

White Sand & Cold Stone

2011-03-22T21:17:00.003+08:00

Oh those days are no more.

Leather Lonesome

2011-03-21T17:55:00.007+08:00

Handmade leather bags. Very masculine but so very very beautiful.

here.

Ten Ton Exposure

2011-03-18T20:48:00.009+08:00

I just developed my first roll from my Cigarette box camera~!
Using Solaris film 800. Here are the results.

I love it! Absolutely adore this.
Compared to the gakken which is super light sensitive, I don't have to hold my breath & stay extra still to take a clear shot. Also, the cigarette cam has a counter! No more overlapped shots that I so frequently encounter with the TLR. YAY.

Interestingly - the vignetting is much more subdued compared to the gakken which gives a blurred out perimeter about the shot. Probably because the cigarette cam is fixed focus - not complaining here.

The downside is that you really need a lot of light for the cigarette cam to work. No way will this work even in airy indoors.

Shot of window with ultra bright sunlight streaming through at 4.30pm - yet still dark as hell.

This room was fairly well lit but here it looks like otherwise.

Hello shoo~~ haha - this was taken outside NLB/Hans & it was still pretty bright at the stage area (I was using ISO 800 mind you - that's pretty high) better to attach a flash next time.

More on flickr!

When the Brain Sneezes

2011-03-17T20:33:00.007+08:00

We bought a brand new Yamaha keyboard for our collective birthday presents (My brother & I) *What?* you say *I thought your birthday was in April?*
Yes - it is. No, I don't care to explain.

So, here we are... ... brand new shiny keyboard - so ironic that no one in the household has even the slightest germ of the beginnings of a notion of how to play 2-handed songs - save for my eldest sister who is shockingly talented.

Well, today I walked up to the 3rd level & saw my brother furiously attacking cardboard with a blunt scissors. There was a gigantic needle threaded with thick black yarn beside him.
Curious, I asked,
"What are you doing?"
"I'm making protection for the keyboard"

Let me describe to you what he was creating. It was a large rectangular cover, kind of like a wooden tray but missing the other end. He had cleverly sewn the whole thing out of cut-up bits of cardboard & thread. Like this.

The funny thing is, it doesn't even cover the whole keyboard! He obviously had not heard of that long cloth that pianos usually have above their keyboard to keep off the dust.

The whole thing looked so ridiculously cute & incomprehensible it made my day.

Through the pinhole into the deep

2011-03-15T22:22:00.005+08:00

I bought a cigarette box camera!
Spaceships AND cute tentacled aliens? Who can resist? NO ONE!

I've just finished reading Pride & Prejudice & Zombies:

Now on to re-reading this:

I realised that Hitch Hiker's Guide reminds me a lot of this:

The same wry humour, the same incomprehensible time-swaps, the same totally unexplainable endings ... ... Well, it was good while it lasted.

Funny Money

2011-03-12T20:45:00.003+08:00

The mysterious Jamaican man from church who bought me a smashing pair of turquois sneakers. He 'found' them on the bus, apparently.

Pastry Business Bafoon

2011-03-11T09:56:00.004+08:00

I'm happy again. And I need to eat cake. NOW.

here.

Slow Life of the Snail

2011-03-07T20:32:00.008+08:00

You know the times when you have a lot of things to do - then suddenly stop & stare into blank space?

Your brain stops working and you can't remember what you're supposed to do next.

Yeah, that's what's happening to me now - I think this photo of my sister with a deep contemplative look on her face is an apt reflection of what I'm feeling.

I'm on the left regarding a spoon with suspicion, wearing the same look AAH teachers give to dubious sounding presentations.

Head full of Fog

2011-03-06T16:42:00.005+08:00

Brain caving under stress.

I should go to the beach.

Bare Essentials

2011-02-26T23:03:00.005+08:00

Stuff like these makes me want to be a guy.
Put on some vintage after-shave & go out for coffee with a fine lady friend. Ahem.

here.

Naked Stardrops

2011-02-20T19:47:00.005+08:00

一絲不掛 : 陳奕迅

I'm going to learn cantonese. Just to listen to Eason Chan's songs.

Also I got myself a spankingly beautiful 中国风 vintage poster from a flea market. Love the illustration, love the paper (its really old, not some faux vintage thing), love it to bits.
Next poster I want is a gigantic world map with inkings of whirlpools & an authentic galley being eaten by a kraken.

Sky Soup

2011-02-19T08:53:00.008+08:00

And everything that you do ... ...

What's up with lonely people?

2011-02-11T09:06:00.012+08:00

I should really start thinking of my future. I should stop dreaming about old Arthurian stories & build more constructive castles in the air.

I should get a tie, a nice one. I should clean up my room & pick up the bits of my brain scattered on the floor before someone slips on it & accuses me for serendipitous idiocy. And sleep less, if such a thing was possible.

I should study another computer language. Maybe not. But I could try. I should go to a birthday party & make more friends. I should marry a rich prince. & I really should learn how to pilot a rocket, because I want to fly to the moon one day.

I'm swimming in a sea of carmine

2011-02-08T18:53:00.004+08:00

I hope . Yeah .

Quiet Brick Hearth

2011-02-04T10:08:00.005+08:00

Had porridge for breakfast, lunch & dinner yesterday.

And I like it.

photo from here.

Cockles of my Heart

2011-01-30T14:13:00.007+08:00

It's been mighty cold these days many thanks to urgent rainclouds who sees fit to empty their collective bladders on our very soggy island.

Ah, I just want to curl up in bed & nurse a cup of steaming milo. Then I'd be happy.

You know what would make me even happier?
If my milo was served in a teapot that looked like this:
Need. To. Get. Cute. Teapot. NOW.

$120 from here (click).
OUCH.

Anyway, my older sis saw my endlessly adorable green dinosaur painting all snazzily framed up on my wall & requested I paint a green monster for her!

So I did!

We Only Bleed Rain

2011-01-25T18:48:00.008+08:00

Watercolour & acrylic

School's started & we pray for it to be better than the last one. Please.

Verily, verily happy

2011-01-22T12:25:00.005+08:00

This is a holiday well spent.
Sleeping, eating, playing computer games & painting water colour dinosaurs.

I could do them over & over again.
GIVE ME MORE HOLIDAYS!

-
-
-

I was investigating a queer looking shop in Bali lane called Doinky Doodles.

Rainbow paint & a natty blue pelican looking all pleased with himself welcomes you.

It is filled, literally FILLED, with the damnest of cutest handmade goods ever since the sewing machine was invented.

And guess what I found?

MOMSHOOs stuff!! Fluffy Eyeball pins.
Why does Momshoos stuff crop up in cute places all the time???

33 Bali Lane. Don't miss the bright yellow exterior & a vastly happy yellow seal sign.

Prehistoric Relics

2011-01-19T00:06:00.007+08:00

My awesome watercolour fan art inspired by All My Friends are Dead, Monson & John. I'm gonna hang this on my wall.

A tourist in my own country

2011-01-15T21:58:00.010+08:00

I've found a new book place near the Chinatown area called Littered with Books .

It's not as rustic as Books Actually or quiant as Woods in the Books - but it exudes an old world charm that makes you half expect a hirsute old professor smoking a pipe to magically pop out somewhere.

It's at 20 Duxton Road. Slightly behind the church.

Oh, & it's big.
I'd reckon it is even bigger than Books Actually. And it's 2 storeys.
It has a HUGE variety of books. Literature, cute kids books, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Thrillers ... you name it.

Lacquered wood panelling & moody oak furniture. 2nd level.
Soft red couches with a view to kill screams at you to sit on it & smoke a pipe.

You HAVE to check out their Penguin novella collection.
I have never seen Penguin books with cover pages as gorgeous as what they have here.

I'm blown away by the paper used for the covers.
Thick, creamy, cloth-like card stock you'd get at Fancy Paper. I could just buy them books for the covers alone.

Dappling sunlight streams through the window. Illuminating a cool big map on the wall. Ahoy mateys!!

View from outside. Stairs leading to the 2nd level.

Sweets & Sauce

2011-01-14T18:01:00.004+08:00

Tried the creamiest & most delicious snow ice ever.
Followed a warm bowl of almond soya milk.
On a rainy day.
Life doesn't get better than this.

It's a tiny shop tucked beside the Chinatown MRT, beside the McDonald's. I have forgotten the name in my heady euphoria of sugar-induced gushiness.

Lomographic memory

2011-01-11T23:42:00.008+08:00

Developed new film with the Lomography ISO200!
This is my first time using it & I'm okay with the strong hue the film produces. The grains are kinda like the Solaris - not that tight. But that's really ok.

Comes in a neat box.

If you are a fan of egg yolk hues & massive saturation, this is the film for you.
Above shot taken in bright sunlight with a hyperactive older sister.

A jump-shot that didn't make it.

Works admirably indoors. Kinda.

Interestingly, the vignetting is more subdued compared to Solaris film. Hmm... Curious, curious.

Altogether, a solid spanking film. But looking at orange drenched shot after shot can get a bit old. Actually, this reminds me of the Wong Family Gift Xchange - Secret Santa present from my dad for Christmas, budget of $20, which led to me recieving 3 Solaris film rolls, lovingly wrapped in the store's plastic bag, with the receipt still attached stating - $18.20.

Thanks dad.

Noir Resplendent

2011-01-09T22:27:00.007+08:00

"Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make. "

Dracula, 1931
Directed by Tod Browning, starring Bela Lugosi.
Damn, this is good stuff. Lugosi as Drac is simply fabulous. Exotic, creepy & sexy. Watch the part where he smashes the mirror from Van Helsing's hand & marvel as his beautiful face contorts in rage. Then back into his beautiful face all in one smooth motion of acting magic.

Bela Lugosi: one very attractive Dracula.

The guy who plays Renfield must have set the standard for crazy roles in acting. Right there up the loony barometer with Jack Nicholson.

"I am Dracula. I bid you welcome. "

For other heart-stopping creepy old films, go watch Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock.
I could barely watch the last part without covering my eyes & peeping through the gaps of my fingers in sheer, undiluted terror.

Conniferous Confections

2011-01-06T20:16:00.007+08:00

I wanna live in a treehouse.
Yes, a treehouse. Whooo~ a treehouse
No, I don't care about plumbing & the heights.
I just wanna live in a treehouse &, I dunno, eat cheesecake all day long.

Feist Lovin'

2011-01-02T21:45:00.006+08:00

Your shoulder
The mooring for me
Like water lost in the sea

I'm in love with Feist.

Purchase Blue Goodbyes

2010-12-29T20:45:00.008+08:00

Once, Serangoon Garden Circus used to be a sleepy town of sleazy bars & indifferent people.
Now, with the unknown invasion of the Unidentified Extraterrestrial Lifeform Things - UELT - we see the subtle but sinister changes that pervades within the faux village.

Oh, of course you don't see it immediately. The alien invaders have been very smart.
Using scrambled decoy soundwaves, they are sending a constant stream of ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) waves that hypnotizes our minds & prevents commoners from 'seeing' their master-plan construction. I have sneaked into their HQ - now masquerading as myVillage mall in Maju ave - all back & slick & shiny like Darth Vadar.

Alien Headquarters. Lone brainwashed human stands at entrance - ready to do her master's bidding & throw anyone out in a jiffy.

Hastily took some blurry shots of the unfinished mall interior.

Brown corrugated metal furnishings are sure to impress & dazzle all who will fall under the alien's spell of impressive interior designing.

Elevators that send human test subjects to their doom.

I entered into the ONLY store that was open.
The Homosapien Detoxifiction & Extraction Turbine Chamber.
Or as the aliens skillfully named it : NTUC FairPrice Finest.

Oh hoho, we already have a Cold Storage Speciality just one block away serving jacked up food prices & kiwis that costs $2 - each. Can't we have a normal Seng Shiong or NTUC Xtra for a change?

But no. The alien brains at the Urban Development Schemes have decided that all normal grocery stores will go to the NEX. *Stares jelousy at NEX*

Mutant fruits from a far off planet.
Check out the price tag.

What?! If I'm paying $9.30 for 2 apples, my apples better look like this:
While I was swallowing my bile, 2 alien employees caught sight of me brazenly brandishing my Sony Ericsson camera around & instantly transformed into half-toad, half-pelican looking things with very long ears & started chasing after me!

I ignored the whole counter of exotic cheese & dashed up the elevator & nearly dropped into a chute for collecting unsuspecting human test subjects. I whrirred around & dashed out through a second exit & ran back home.

But not before I saw another one of their shiny metallic mind-control tower construction sprouting up in the middle of the road.

Those damn aliens!

Reminiscence Ago

2010-12-25T13:34:00.008+08:00

I was going through the old photobooks this Christmas & thought I'd show you how my life looked when I was 4 years old.

J.M Barrie once said that children were innocent, gay & heartless. I don't know why that came to mind - but it did.
(click to view full)

I always seem to be wearing bright garish red as a kid. Must have been the in thing then.

Remember I said I looked like my uni friend, Jiayin, when I was a kid? & here's proof! I totally look like her here. That's my elder sis on the right.

Those are my mum, bro & sis in the pic. Look at the garden man! Did Singapore ever look so much like it was in autumn, eh?

Canine State of Honour

2010-12-24T21:35:00.006+08:00

Do you like cake?
If you do, head down to the nearest Prima Deli for waffles and swiss rolls. Mmmm mmm.

Does your dog like cakes?
If you are insane enough to feed your dog cake & the mutt actually likes it, head down to the pet shop in NEX Serangoon for some canine confection.

Pet shop. A place to pamper your pets with unexplainable things.

The counter where you purchase specially made cakes for pets.

As you can see, it's not only cakes. It's biscuits, macarons, sweet breads, cookies and misc other stuff to feed your dog & fool yorself into thinking they appreciate it.

They even have a pretty cream chiffon. Aww.... .... Not for human consumption.

Ending off with some dog pictures.

A fabulous way of decadently pampering & reducing any sort of diginity your pet has.

Desire Vermillion

2010-12-12T10:07:00.003+08:00

A list of what I wishfully wish Santa would put in my forelorn & neglected sock.

yashica electro 35 GSN

A whole shelf of tin toys.

China. An edible version of it so I can crumple into a wad, ingest it & distill the knowledge of thousands of years of old bearded men & their ink painting traditions.

Steven Brust, Iorich. OMG, someone please get me this book!!

This is my Christmas list & I ought to go back to studying Sesshu's awe-inspiring ink painting save that I'm starting to hate him & am blogging as an excuse not to start work.
START WORK!!

Banana my Googoola

2010-12-09T21:37:00.004+08:00

B a n a n a & F i s h e s.

I visit this site everytime I feel that the world has come to an end.
It ended last Sunday.
But we don't care. Don't care. Don't care. Yeah.
只是这次真的死了

incongruity of masochism

2010-12-07T11:30:00.000+08:00

Some people... ... haih.... *shakes head*

Step full of heaven

2010-12-04T13:40:00.005+08:00

~

When plane engines fall through your roof
and I broke my knee while walking down the street that I lived in
while no one was passing by

Life comes along and it trickles down the cheeks of every beautiful boy
Time moves along and it breaks every bone in your spine

Fall into the river
our pocket full of stones
full of stones

~
Larkin Step by Ling Kai
(c l i c k)

blissful reincarnation

2010-12-03T19:32:00.002+08:00

It's (almost) over!!!

MUAHAHAHAHAHAH
HAHAHAHAHAHAAH
HAHAHAHAHAHAAH

Gonna start playing heroes of M&M III again.
And sleep. Yes, sleep. Oh Sleep, my friend, how I have missed you. I will romantically take you to bed & stay there with you in this rainy season for as long as I possibly can.

Depressed

2010-11-27T15:37:00.002+08:00

I always thought Brand's essence of chicken was quite possibly the most vile tasting of all drinkable things. Very possibly worse than drinking urine.

But I'm immensely depressed this week & have caught myself gulping down bottle after bottle of this repulsive liquid like soup. Funny how being depressed can make your tastebuds torture itself with essence of chicken.

Want to hear a morbid story?

No. Of course you don't. But I have to tell it anyway because that's what depressed people do on their blogs.

Well, once upon a time there lived a hard disk - named Danny. He is so named because of a mondo huge glow in the dark T-Rex skeleton sticker pasted onto him that has long fell off.
Danny was black, dull and unimpressive in appearance, as are most hard-disks. But he was a hardworking, diligent being with a good sense of humour despite having a shakey USB connection port which he was born with. So I don't blame him.

He never gave me any serious trouble & I never had to discipline the chap by brutally reformatting his average but cheerful brain-chips.

Until today.

Danny died on me today.

I suddenly feel that I cannot write about the tragic and infuriating circumstances concerning his death & my great discomfort even though I set out on this blog entry to do so.

Abrupt end to post. *angst and gloom*

Obessive Depressing Madness

2010-11-23T20:10:00.004+08:00

Someone. I think she needs her cake.

Allie is the Cake God. (click)

2010-11-21T23:20:00.001+08:00

B R A I N

F R Y

A VERY Unproductive post.

2010-11-16T22:06:00.006+08:00

Just airing out the socks

2010-11-10T20:04:00.008+08:00

Well, well ... ...

If it isn't that special time of the year where time suddenly takes the form of freshly baked cookies that mysteriously disappear right before your eyes. Yum.

If you have found the quality of posts on my blog to be dishearteningly lacking - don't panic. I feel the same way too. I'd like to elaborate but I'm feeling very sleeeeeepyy.... .... for some reason.

To end off this indolent post, I'll quote Sir Adams who says : I Love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

Words of wisdom I shall meditate on for my 2 quizes tomorrow. Amen.

An Unproductive Post

2010-11-07T18:17:00.005+08:00

But I really want those damn gloves.

of remiss and lethargy

2010-10-30T16:29:00.004+08:00

I realise I've been posting quite some lazy posts these days (Big pictures, little words) much like the nursery pop-out books we love to shamelessly abuse.

Do I have an explanation?

No.

... But I do have a picture unabashly stolen from some clever person's site and pasted into this post without his or her prior knowledge whatsoever to my thieving online atrocity.

Atrocious Vegetables

2010-10-23T10:34:00.002+08:00

Someone stab that insolent shroom please.

A messy person

2010-10-18T21:30:00.005+08:00

My room is in a perpetual state of utter mess.
No matter how many times I clean up (not too often), the moat of haphazard papers and plastic bags of all origins just mysteriously grow out of the marble flooring like happy mushrooms, much to the chagrin of my mum.

This uncontrolled growth pattern has spurred my dad to get me yet another Toyogo cupboard which will be installed today and subsequently neglected.

Doing some self-reflection, I realise I don't want the mess to go away.

It must be some unconcious state of mind that prevents my hands from organizing my things into neat systematized blocks. Some part of me cries out for a rich and colourful pool of mess at the foot of my bed.

You see, in a mess, you can't find your things easily.
And therein lies the inexplicable wonder of being surprised by your mess. Because you never know where exactly your thing is in a mess pile, there is always a chance that you can't find it. And then there is a chance that you can. It's a surprise. It's also the joy of sieving through a sea of rubbish in search of that lost coin.

I'm very protective of my mess.
I give specific instructions to everyone in my family not to touch my mess. Don't clean it. Don't rearrange it. Don't do anything to it. Because everything is in its proper place.

Or maybe I'm just plain lazy.

Hands up baby .

2010-10-17T21:18:00.006+08:00

I've had enough this time ,
Give me back my boots you swine
It's your fault you hate me .

† camera obscura

Rolling houses

2010-10-15T22:51:00.006+08:00

These pictures just breaks my heart .

Rolling Homes: Handmade Houses on Wheels by Jane Lidz

Sitting in the back of the trunk, with a guitar and a dog, and the whole forest listening to you . Going wherever, whenever .
Going away, away, away from here .

Litany of Musk .

2010-10-11T21:04:00.006+08:00

Other than being an astronaut - my other wish ... ... really .... is living in a book shop.

1974 way home( wine book Cafe)

Hello, After School Siesta .

2010-10-07T22:26:00.002+08:00

I should go back to Hong Kong one day.
Visit my cousins in Kowloon.
Sleep in that ultra-tiny hostel room.
Buy 50 packets of Old Wives Biscuits.

And visit this fabulous cafe.

Afterschool Cafe & Design