what i've done.....in the month of Janus

Yea, *rolls eyes* I know. I'm one of those fans who try to incorporate Linkin Park song titles/lyrics wherever I can. It's just a geeky fun thing I like to do, sort of a way of paying homage to my fave band. Lame but....I like to do it anyway.

Ok, carrying on. So in keeping with my lifestyle bible "A Year In High Heels", I thought that at the end of every month I'm going to do a recap/surmization of the new things tried out or accomplished. To kick it off, here is January's list:

..........

ONE
Smoked an entire choccie cigarello. I'm not a smoker and perhaps have previously ever taken 6 puffs of a ciggie in my entire existence but every time I'm paying for groceries at the supermarket, these chocolate flavoured cigarellos they place at the counters start trying to seduce me and former roomie so we finally gave in and bought a pack. It was disgusting to say the least, the taste/feel that is. And the sight of a couple of non-smokers up on the balcony attempting amateurish cigar smoking, trying to look blase while rapidly sucking down the stick is just hilarious. But it was a fun last gasp activity we did before she left and it's one for the memory book :)

TWO
Finished reading "Sophie's World". Woohoo! What a milestone for me, I did it! I overcame my Mount Rushmore. Atlas Shrugged, I will conquer thee. But seriously, I gained a lot of insight. I did come away feeling as if these thinkers who were great influences on civilizations throughout history sought out to contradict each other at every turn. However, I also saw merit in the leanings of each and every one of them.

THREE
Danced the chacha, albeit badly, but chacha nevertheless.

FOUR
Debuted my Mulberry Raspberry. The jewel in my handbag collection. It's basically the single most expensive piece in my wardrobe.

FIVE
Finally caved and bought a teeny tiny notebook I can stuff in my handbag. I got myself the HP Mini 2133. Can't seem to wait for the Nokia N97 (which is slated for the mobile computing generation). Don't worry dream phone, we'll get together by the end of '09, I promise. Anyway, prior to this purchase, I only had my work laptop provided by the company so I figured it's time to invest in a piece of my own. I was looking for portability as my main criteria cos I don't want to have to lug around a lot of extra luggage when I travel or go for meetings or basically when I'm out and about. And with 2 gigs of ram, 160 gigs of hd space and running XP, I am set. I don't particularly care that the chipset is not Intel.

SIX
Planned and booked a vacay to Bangkok at the end of March. This will be my fifth trip to the city. It's one of my most favourite shopping destinations. I'm a complete market hag and absolutely love hoofing it down to Jatujak market. Bargains galore and the things you can find there are great. Jewelery, clothes, shoes, bags (although this will not be on the list of items to purchase due to my vow of bag celibacy), home decor, you name it, they have it. Unique and in-trend stuff too. Also, they have the most awesome shopping mall there, it's called Siam Paragon and it is designer heaven. This is merely a window shopping treat for me. One thing I will do is watch a movie there. The theatre is a completely luxurious experience, I have frequented cinemas in a number of countries including the good ol US of A and bar none, Siam Paragon offers THE BEST cinematic experience for appreciative moviegoers.

SEVEN
Redecorated and reorganized my apartment, not really purging the existence of former roomie, but more like creating a new atmosphere for my newly 'for a single' abode. I've simply moved around a bunch of furniture and hung stuff on the wall. The extent of my redecorating expertise. A trip to Ikea might be in order to add more panache to the place.

EIGHT
Kicked off my 'Wear All Unworn Clothes' campaign. This should be pretty self-explanatory.

NINE
Started my detox plan and regular exercise regime. I have been drinking the detox tea every day for the past month and I don't know if it is really helping with purging toxins from my body but this month I did not get any PMS and I have felt more energetic. On the exercise side, I have not reached my 5-days-a-week yet, only up to 4 right now but I have upped time spent on my weekend exercise from an hour to between 2.5 to 3 hours. Although next week I will be homeward bound so there will be a one week hiatus from exercise activities. I'll try and make an effort, it just might not come to fruition :D

..........

And that ends the list. Till the end of Feb.

what ties you to the tube

I follow a lot of tv shows. I get word of a tv show and if it seems intriguing, I'll make an effort to seek it out. Most times, I'll end up getting into it and become a follower. Some are now defunct due to low ratings and some have run their tv series course. It's always disappointing of course but there are always other tv shows to fill in the gap. My first fave series would have to be the '80s hit "V". I also was very much into "The A-Team" and "Air Wolf". Ok, looking back, I liked a lot of covert ops style action tv didn't I? That's probably cos I'm a military brat and growing up in that kind of environment, well it seeps into your consciousness, all the tanks and missiles, etc, etc.

But I believe the tv series that has stood the test of time and repeated viewings, without EVER coming off as lame, or evoking why-did-I-invest-time-watching-this feelings or being boring after the umpteenth watch, is "Friends". I can watch Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, Rachel and Ross over and over and over and, one more time, over again without getting bored AND will still manage to laugh no matter if I've seen the epi perhaps 50 times ("The One With Princess Consuela" anyone?). Even "Gilmore Girls" and "Sex and The City" can't compete with "Friends" and I profess my love for "Gilmore Girls" and "Sex and The City" to anyone who will listen. Speaking of which, I really miss "Gilmore Girls", I miss seeing Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel (and it should go without mention, Matt Czuchry, but I'm mentioning him anyway) every week. With "Sex and The City", the series came to a satisfying ending. Granted, I was more in Aidan's camp but I do admit Carrie and Mr Big was a justifiable ending. "Gilmore Girls", however, ended on a completely ambiguous note. It left a lot of loose ends, not because there's a movie version planned or anything but because the show was in talks for another season before everything broke down and the show officially went off the air.

But through watching these 3 shows, I fell upon other shows. I started watching "Supernatural" and "Heroes". This was because the star of "Supernatural", Jared Padelecki, and Milo Ventigmilia from "Heroes" were both on "Gilmore Girls" playing Rory's paramours. In Milo's case, he played Alexis's real life boyfriend as well. Back then anyways. Another reason I started watching "Supernatural" was because I had previously liked "Dark Angel" and the dashing and handsome Jensen Ackles who played Alec was the other star of "Supernatural" so naturally I'm not going to miss out on some gorgeous eye candy. I am also a fan of "Lipstick Jungle", because the series is an adaptation of Candace Bushnell's book of the same name and Candace Bushnell also had another book made into a seven seasons long show, "Sex and The City". I love "Lipstick Jungle" especially Lindsay Price's character Victory Ford. But unfortunately, word on the street is the show is being put out to pasture due to low ratings which really sucks as it is a fantastic show. Another show I am currently following but as of yet I am unsure if it's on the chopping block or not is "Dirty Sexy Money". I love this show as well but it does not look good for Peter Krause, Donald Sutherland and co.

Comedies I am currently into are "Samantha Who?" starring Christina Applegate and the delightfully hilarious "How I Met Your Mother". I find Christina Applegate is a great comedic actress from her turn as Rachel's bratty, spoilt sister in "Friends" so was intrigued when this series started. It is funny and I completely enjoy Sam's journey rediscovering herself. The "Friends"-esque "How I Met Your Mother" is something I just recently got into. I had heard about it ages ago but because I find Neil Patrick Harris icky due to his time on "Doogie Howser, M.D" I didn't tune in. But a friend insisted that I give this show a shot and when I was still hesitant, she gave me one episode to watch to try to get me onboard.....the one where Robin's teen secret is revealed :D That was soooooooo funny, I think I watched it about 10 times the first day and I have been hooked ever since, I even find Neil Patrick Harris's portrayal of Barney attractive and that's saying a lot!

The word-of-mouth system has also played a part in generating interest in tv shows for me. I am a lurker on the TWOP forums (Television Without Pity) and from them have gotten into a number of shows. While on the "Gilmore Girls" forums I kept reading about this other tv show about a high school girl playing detective. The show was called "Veronica Mars" and this petite blonde chick who does not look like she can lift a textbook let alone fight the scum of Neptune, Veronica Mars played by Kristen Bell, is the show's protagonist. I followed V Mars all the way to college and then she was not renewed, I pouted for a few weeks but life goes on. So there ends my affair with Veronica. Other shows I found through the internet are "Greek", which has remained relatively quiet after the Christmas break but should start up again in February/March I think so there's still hope it won't be discontinued, "Dexter" (Michael C. Hall is totally hot as a serial murderer killer cum blood forensics expert) and "Friday Night Lights" (my lil bit of Texan pleasure, I actually don't get American football but it never seems to stop me from enjoying football themed series/movies). I am also a mucho huge fan of "Brothers and Sisters" and "Prison Break", though I recently read "Prison Break" will be ending this season and there are plans to write out Balthazar Getty's character from the main cast due to his thing with Sienna Miller.

Then there are the shows that I started following because they were good but now are just meh though I can't seem to give up on them completely. These shows are "Grey's Anatomy", "Desperate Housewives" and "One Tree Hill". Let me just say, I have hated the whole Derek-Meredith tug of love war that went on for the first 4 frickin seasons. When Meredith nearly died in that big ferry accident and while in her coma she saw "the light", I screamed for her to RUN TOWARDS IT, unrealistically I might add (i knew it wasn't going to happen but one can always try right?), and that this would signify the end of that tired, worn out storyline. I stopped watching Greys after that and have no idea what happened between then and the end of the fourth season except for what my sisters have casually slipped into conversations. I recently got back on the G-Train this current season, cos I was bored during the barren Christmas hiatus and discovered the show has mellowed out and things are looking good again 'cept for the weird Izzie-Danny storyline which is quite hard to swallow. Even Teri Hatcher's Susan Meyer is unbelievably bearable this season in "Desperate Housewives". She used to annoy me to kingdom come and I only ever watched the show for Felicity Huffman but at the end of the last season, I saw that they brought on Gale Harold, who I had seen in "Queer As Folk", and had to tune it to see how that played out. Well, he wasn't on the show that long because he got into an accident in real life and just recently came out of a coma I think so they broke Susan and Jackson up. Nonetheless, the show is doing good, no too-freaky for the suburbs kinda happenings. Ah, "One Tree Hill". Yes, I am guilty of watching this hard-to-believe show. I started watching cos it was good in the first 2-3 seasons then things just got wilder and wilder and crazier but I stuck on. I got my wish (sorta) when Peyton and Lucas finally got together, yet again, but somehow, of the past 2 epis, I have found Peyton to be annoying as Luke's fiance. Too cloying. But like the show, I will continue to trudge on beside it, I don't believe it can go on much further.

Now, of course, who can leave out "LOST". I have followed "LOST" from the moment it debuted till now with a brief break from season 4 because I completely forgot about it. I'm all caught up now cos, again, during the Christmas break, there's just simply nothing to watch. I love a tv show that can make me go WTH! and gasp in mega surprise. Damon Lindelof and JJ Abrams reeled me in when they threw out that polar bear on a tropical island bit. I am a sucker for weird, implausible stuff like that. There's only one thing that's changed for me on "LOST" and that's my liking of Locke. I used to have a soft spot him but now he just seems like he's gone all ape-shit crazy. But it's ok, there's always Desmond to make it all better. Next in line is of course, Gossip Girl. Yup, I need my clothes and handbag fix and this show has them in designer shopping bag upon designer shopping bag. It's practically a course in haute couture. I love the clothes and shoes and the handbags, they had me obsessing on the Foley+Corinna Jet Set tote carried by stunt cast Lydia Hearst in the last epi of Season 1 for weeks (I'm still slightly in love with it). The storyline is merely so-so, the show only remains a fave because of the awesometastic styling department!

So as can be seen (or read), my viewing pleasures are many and diverse. It seems a bit on the insane side to be watching/following this many shows but the tube and I have something special and this keeps things interesting for both of us. I wouldn't want it any other way ;P

i'm looking forward to seeing.....

Confessions of A Shopaholic starring Isla Fischer and also He's Just Not That Into You featuring a star studded ensemble that includes Jennifer Aniston and Drew Barrymore.

Any self-respecting person who calls themselves a shopaholic knows, the Sophie Kinsella Shopaholic series is a must-read! The crazy-even-by-my-standards antics of Becky Bloomwood are a laugh-a-minute fiesta on paper and I certainly hope that it will translate well on celluloid. I know a lot of people who were none-too-pleased with the selection of Isla Fischer to play the incomparable shopaholic Becky Brandon nee Bloomwood but I have a hunch she'll be able to fill those Christian Louboutin shoes quite nicely. The only thing that I currently have qualms about with this adaptation is that the setting is NYC. Now, yea, I love NYC and all but I think they should have stayed true to the book and based this movie in London. I guess this is because they are merging the first 2 books, "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and "Shopaholic takes Manhattan", but Becky only moves to New York in the second book so I would think they should have had some scenes in the UK. The synopsis, as can be found on IMDB:

"Based on the books Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan by Sophie Kinsella. Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is a 25 year old who lives with her best friend Suze (Krysten Ritter) in Suze's flat (paying her friend rent that is well below market value), in a trendy part of town. Rebecca has a very boring job writing for a financial magazine. She has a shopping addiction and her crap job doesn't pay enough. Her bills are piling up, so she tries cutting back (complete fiasco), then she tries making more money (another fiasco). Eventually, Becky discovers a story that she is truly invested in. Exposing the story gets the attention of a (male, need I say more?) colleague that she hasn't quite figured out yet. Some drama ensues as she snags the (EXTREMELY hot) guy, and she attempts to pay off her ever-growing debt."

That aside, I have high hopes for this and I am not looking to be disappointed.

Moving along.....Now, I heard about this supposedly ground-breaking relationship self-help book way back when, during the time it first came out, I believe it was in '04, and was making publishing waves all around the world. I had a friend get this for me as a birthday gift. Constructed as a series of "Dear Abby" please-help-me letters, it features numerous women asking for help on solving the mystery of the male specimen behavior and what they really mean. I have to be honest and admit I didn't power through the whole book as I felt some parts just did not apply to me. Basically, I didn't really connect with the points the book was trying to make. So, if the book wasn't much of a draw, logic would dictate that I shouldn't be interested in seeing this movie right? Well, there's a loophole of sorts. The authors of the book were involved behind-the-scenes (gee, there's a whole lot of hyphenated words/phrases in this post!) on a tv series that I, and million other women as well, adore. Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo worked on the pop culture favourite, "Sex & The City" as a consultant and a writer, respectively. Well, I am sure about Greg's role but am slightly hazy on Liz's part but she definitely was apart of the series in some way. Anyway, the point is, I am expecting great things from this movie. The film plot (taken from Wikipedia) goes:

"The plot chronicles the romantic misadventures of several individuals in their twenties and thirties. The common thread is that one person in each relationship is more "into" the other person than vice versa. At the core of these multiple stories is Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin), a young woman who repeatedly misinterprets the signs that men give her about their level of interest in her. The more experienced and romantically successful Alex (Justin Long), the manager of a bar, advises her on how to understand men.

Other plotlines include married couple Janine (Jennifer Connelly) and Ben (Bradley Cooper), who are going through a rough patch—leading him to flirt with Anna (Scarlett Johansson), an aspiring singer. Anna, in turn, is dating Connor (Kevin Connolly), but is clearly less into him than he is into her. The final major plot arc is Neil (Ben Affleck) and Beth's (Jennifer Aniston) story. They have cohabited for several years, but break up when Beth desires to get married and Neil refuses.

Drew Barrymore, one of the film's producers, is also featured as a newspaper editor who helps Connor promote his real-estate business."

Initially these two movies are to be released on the same date, February 13 2009, but due to reasons unknown, He's Just Not That Into You will be coming to US theatres on February 6, 2009 while Confessions of A Shopaholic will make its debut on 13 February 2009. I guess He's Just Not That Into You did not want to compete against Confessions of A Shopaholic for box office draw as both books are popular with the female demographic these movies are targeting but I have to say that if they did pit against each other, Confessions of A Shopaholic would most likely have won hands down, clutching a few dozen shopping bags!

my killing me fitness coach

OMG.....if I didn't realize it before, well, I am completely aware of it now. I have absolutely no upper body strength. Zero, nada, zilch. My guns, in which I have none, are pathetically weak.

I just got myself a new exergame on the Wii, it's called "My Fitness Coach", and I was road-testing it today. After an hour of cardio and yoga workouts, I ended up flat on my back on my yoga mat, all muscles screaming for relief. I thought "WiiFit" killed me the first time I went through it.....oh, how innocent I was then, I knew nothing. "My Fitness Coach" is "WiiFit" times 50.


The first time you run the game, Maya, the virtual trainer, will ask you to input your stats so that a customized fitness programme can be created to suit your fitness needs. Unsurprisingly, after jumping through the set-up hoops (jumping jacks, crunches, push-ups), it was determined that my fitness regime should concentrate on upper body strength. Once that was done, you can choose what type of workout to do and for how long. My first pick was to do a 30 minute cardio workout. I initially chose 45 minutes but thinking that I might want to do some other workout after, I then down shifted to 30 minutes. Boy, was that a good judgement call. Not even 10 minutes into the cardio programme I was already hoping for the end to come fast. I would just like to say that I have a hatred for any and all crunch moves. I hate working my abs, not that they don't need it, but it is the workout I most detest. And waddaya know, there were so many different crunch exercises and too many reps that towards the end, I was barely lifting my shoulders up off the mat, if at all. My stomach was aching. Next on the "Exercise I Hate" list are push-ups. Don't ask me to hold the position for a pulse, lower myself down and then expect me to be able to push myself up again for another pulse. I DON'T HAVE THE STRENGTH! YOU KILLING ME MAYA! But quitting isn't an option. When it comes to exercises with set time limits, I will force myself to finish the entire duration. It's a "you-won't-defeat-me" kinda attitude, I guess it's a good thing to have.

After the 30 minutes was up, I am lying down on the mat, contemplating how I'm going to stand up without straining anymore muscles. After about, perhaps, 10-15 minutes of lying down, I finally manage to haul myself up, all the while thinking, do I want to put myself through anymore today? In the end I thought, ok, let's try going low key, some yoga for 30 minutes should be relaxing right? Wrong, Zlena. This is a fitness game, it's not for you to be taking things easy. The yoga is going to make you stretch and twist and bend like you've never done before. I don't mind so much the sun salutations and child pose but what's with the crocodile pose? That's like a push-up disguised as a yoga pose! My favourite pose.....the sunflower :) That was the most relaxing and non-physical pose throughout the entire segment.

In the end I did manage to get through the entire 30 minutes. And I have to admit, despite all the complaining up top, I did enjoy it, it was a break from the monotony of "WiiFit". I'm "scheduled" to train again with Maya on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Amazingly enough, after that I was still pumped up and decided to "WiiFit" for a bit. I did the level 1 and 2 step routine as well as the 30 minute step. Also put in a 10 minute boxing routine and a bit of hula hoop. I think in total I exercised for 2.5 hours today. I was surprised. But I haven't been exercising all week so I guess I was subconsciously trying to make up for the days. The last time I exercised was last Sunday and I guess I could count the Tuesday night dance-o-rama at the wedding as well. Anyways, I'm dead tired, I need a relaxing soak in the tub!

stocking my library

I noticed a number of movies released in the past year, and also many upcoming ones, are book adaptations. I know some people who don't like it when their favourite book is turned into big screen fare but on a personal level, I love when a book is made into a movie especially if I have read the book beforehand. Some people hate when the movie does not conform to the original storyline of the book but I like to spot the discrepancies/changes between the book's storytelling and the rework for the film. I just do that because I like to see how observant I am, whether I really paid attention to the book when I read it or I was just on auto-pilot. There have been many films where I loved the movie and the book despite seeing some changes made but sometimes the rework for the movie doesn't work and other times, the book becomes a bland read in comparison to the movie version.

Anyways, I was doing some book shopping online (not B&N.com, I'm once bitten, twice shy with them) and bought a bunch of books whose movie versions have already been shown or are currently released at the cinema. Also some normal non-adapted (yet) books. In my shopping cart:

1. Slumdog Millionaire

At the recent Golden Globes, the film "Slumdog Millionaire" was a big winner and it has also been nominated for 10 categories in the upcoming Academy Awards on 22 February 2009. I had the book it was based on, which is of the same name, in my recommendations list on Amazon quite some time before it won all those awards but didn't really pay attention to it as I wasn't too sure about the storyline. But after it won big, I thought I might as well take a read since I have plans to view the movie. Like I've mentioned before, I'm a sucker for award-winning things.

2. Marley & Me

A story about a couple and their dog, Marley. The movie stars Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson with a dog. It was no 1 at the box office during Christmas. I love Jen A since her "Friends" days and have heard good things about the movie. So, I'm going to read the book before I watch this film.

3. The Road

Cormac McCarthy's tale of a father and son in a postapocalyptic world. I saw him on Oprah, the book was one of her Book Club choices and the fact that to get that interview with him was difficult for even the talk show queen was what intrigued me about "The Road". I have not read any Cormac McCarthy books before so this will be my first. I hear it is deep stuff. Also, this title won the 2007 Pulitzer, hence my heightened interest. Viggo Mortensen acts in the movie and since I have a soft spot for Viggo dating back to his Aragorn days, I will want to see this movie. Again will read the book first.

4. Twilight Saga

Yup, I am on the bandwagon with this one. I haven't watched the movie but the buzz about Twilight has been in my stratosphere of consciousness since June '08. I just wasn't interested enough to get into it but people left, right, front, back and center have been raving about Stephenie Meyer's vampire saga that I finally caved and got the whole set. I even went online and got the rough draft of "Midnight Sun" (apparently it is book 1, Twilight, but told in Edward's perspective) put up by Meyer herself on her website when I read somewhere that she had released it. I personally do not find Rob Pattinson attractive in this movie as Edward, although he did look yummy as Cedric in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". And I have heard some pretty annoying things about the cast so I was just not drawn to the movie but I'll buy into the hype. Once I finish all 4 books.

As yet non-adapted books I snagged.....

5. Cecelia Ahern 3-in-1 Box Set
(Where Rainbows End/If You Could See Me/A Place Called Here)

I found Cecelia Ahern when browsing Borders and saw her debut bestseller "P.S, I Love You". I had, then, recently read in the papers it was being adapted into a movie. I also had read the rave reviews on the book. I bought it and was not disappointed. The book made me laugh, cry, angry, irritated; a whole whirlpool of emotions. I have watched the movie starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler. My feelings are simply meh on the movie, I loved the book sooooo much more. Anyways, the box set was a good deal and I started "Where Rainbows End" today and am nearly done. I love it! I love the style, it's written as emails, texts, letters between the people in Rosie Dunne's life. I am going through the gamut of feelings just like when reading "P.S, I Love You". Another reason I'm a big fan of Cecelia Ahern's writing is because she is also the co-creator and exec producer for the fantastically funny "Samantha Who?" starring Christina Applegate.

6. Thanks For The Memories

Another Cecelia Ahern. This is her second most recent offering. The premise of the story sounds promising. The book description goes:

"Joyce Conway remembers things she shouldn't. She knows about tiny cobbled streets in Paris, which she has never visited. And every night she dreams about an unknown little girl with blonde hair. Justin Hitchcock is divorced, lonely and restless. He arrives in Dublin to give a lecture on art and meets an attractive doctor, who persuades him to donate blood. It's the first thing to come straight from his heart in a long time. When Joyce leaves hospital after a terrible accident, with her life and her marriage in pieces, she moves back in with her elderly father. All the while, a strong sense of deja vu is overwhelming her and she can't figure out why !"

I'm looking forward to reading this one.

7. The Almost Moon

This is by the same author who wrote "The Lovely Bones" which is being turned into a movie and is currently in post production (according to IMDB.com) as I type. "The Lovely Bones" movie is a star studded vehicle featuring Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Susan Sarandon and directed by Peter Jackson. I absolutely LOVED "The Lovely Bones" book. It was one of those books that I dreaded reading because of the subject matter but I ended up simply adoring this story, it was heartfelt and wrenching but also hopeful. It's amazing you can say all these things about a tale of a girl who gets raped, murdered, cut up into pieces, dumped in a sinkhole and where the murderer gets away and her family is left in a kind of limbo state. "The Almost Moon" is just as dark. The disturbing storyline of this novel is about a woman who kills her own mother whom she believes has stifled her whole life. The online synopsis explains:

"Taking place 24 hours after the act, it explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers; the meaning of devotion; and the line between love and hate. It is a challenging, moving, gripping story."

I read the Amazon reviews for this book and they were not flattering but I have faith in Sebold's writings and am looking forward to it nonetheless.

8. When You Are Engulfed In Flames

A David Sedaris book. I have not read his previous work, "Me Talk Pretty One Day", but I read the reviews for this one and it appears everyone only has good things to say about this. It's a collection of "uproariously funny and profoundly moving" essays. A book that's going to make me laugh out loud? I'm sold.

9. Confessions of an Air Hostess (A Little Black Dress Book)

And lastly, as my little bit of guilty pleasure, a chick lit book. After vampires, postapocalyptic worlds, murders and unrequited love, I just need some fluff. I love the books from publisher "Little Black Dress". They make the most affordable chick lit and there are some gems in the "Little Black Dress" collection. Their books almost always cost just about USD5 and this one is no different. From bestselling Irish writer, Marisa Mackle, comes a story of the air hostess to end all other air hostesses where a great love story and a fantastic, loveable heroine combine to make this romantic novel.

When everything is rung up, I have spent a grand amount of USD114.45 on a total of 14 books. That averages out to USD8.17 per book. I have to say, that's nifty and smart shopping right there! I believe I should be covered till June on the reading front. Just holding out for the book "I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell" by Tucker Max and Meg Cabot's "Queen of Babble Gets Hitched" which are both currently unavailable at my usual store.

i have a question.....

When a person who doesn't drink any alcohol or take drugs, recreational or otherwise, and therefore can't claim being high or intoxicated as an excuse, how do they explain away embarassingly awkward but enthusiastic dancing at formal functions?

Therein lies my dilemma. I went to my colleague, flea mart expert, sisters' wedding last night and ended up for the better part of the reception being invited/dragged to dance by members of my team (we expats stick together- largely due to the fact that we can't really speak the local language to save us) whereby I came to realize none of us really knows how to bust a move. There was some sideways shuffle (mainly courtesy of moi), some finger pointing, some chicken head impersonations, quite a bit of the twist, a dash of dj spinning, a lot of hip twirling (I did not really want to find out how limber some of my male team members are), some 'raise the roof' action, some efforts to go low, the 'riding in my cadillac' as well as 'cranking my motorbike' move (we stopped short of going all Soulja Boy) and an abysmal attempt to chacha (yes, that was me, unfortunately).

Now it wouldn't be so bad if the evening's fun and festivities end up a fond and slightly fuzzy memory in my mind, replayed in a version to my satisfaction, but I had one rogue colleague videotaping our none too graceful dancing (he has multiple videos from various moments in the evening and is busy laughing himself silly right now watching the 'action'). And to top it off, I distinctly remember a videographer hired for the event, sticking his camera in my face during my chachacha escapade.

*Sigh* will the night's red-face moments ever subside? To be honest, despite the day-after hindsight, it was a great night full of mirth, plenty of drinking (non-alcoholic and otherwise), excellent food and exuberant dancing all around. Altogether, one of the most enjoyable local weddings I've been invited to and I'm happy I could contribute towards the wedding video by providing the bride and groom with some laughs. Or perhaps it'd be grimaces of embarassment on my behalf? Oooh, a thought just occurred to me, that 's even if my shots make the cut, I could very well end up on the editing floor :D One can only hope can't they? Now if only I can figure out how to get to those videos and all other copies my 'think he's hilarious' colleague has.....

historical world events in my lifetime

In my 20-plus years, I've lived through quite a few significant world changing events. Notably, the devastating tsunami of '04, terrifying hurricane katrina, 9/11, the gulf war, the war on terror, Princess Di's and Mother Teresa's passings, Benazir Bhutto's assassination, horrific earthquakes both in China and Indonesia and so much more. When I look back, most of these world landscape changing events are simply awful, my mind can't seem to wrap itself around nor bear its magnitude. Death and destruction is depressing. So it's with a full heart that I join in with everyone this morning in celebrating a historical world event that rings great joyful significance all around the world, the inauguration of America's 44th President, Barack Obama.

This is positive history-making. I believe this is a progression considering the country's past (the slavery, KKK, the LA race riots, Mexican border issues, Ellis Island and the Mayflower, all persons who fought for racial ambiguity) but does this mean that as a nation, America is finally united? That question is difficult to answer. The new president is not a miracle worker, he is simply a man on a mission to implement positive change. Let's not get ahead of ourselves and pin too unrealistic hopes on the man. Change will also not come speedily, it'll take time but I believe the world as a whole is giving their support to Barack Obama to turn things around for the US.

For the last couple of years, the world over has lost their respect for the self-proclaimed last remaining superpower, confidence and relations eroded by many decisions made by the previous administration as it went on to bully its way (and policies) in places I personally hold they have no right. But that is all, hopefully, behind us. In his inauguration speech, the newly instated president mentions it is....."time for remaking America".....it is that time indeed.

On a wholly unrelated and superficial note, I just wanted to give a happy birthday shout out to Linkin Park drummer Rob Bourdon, may you keep on drumming and entertaining for many years to come. Isn't it cool that he will always remember his thirtieth birthday as the day America swore in the first Black president. The day he turned thirty was a personal milestone for him and a gigantic moon landing milestone for his country. There, managed to tie the 2 events together.....I can be crafty if I want to :D

UPDATE:
For some inexplicable reason, each time I read a news item on the changes being put into motion by Barack Obama and his team, I start getting all emo with some kind of here-comes-the-knight-in-shining-armour type feelings and my eyes well up. I have no idea why it's affecting me like this. I know he probably will make decisions that people don't agree on and that his 'reign', realistically, will not be entirely smooth sailing. It's just each time I see his images and read about his plans I just get all.....hopeful, I guess. I don't know how else to describe it. It's really freaking me out!

the internet never ceases to surprise me

I was reading this person's blog, a blog that I occasionally check in with cos she's quite popular and I like to see what she's been up to, and found today's post was a rant about people from another blog badmouthing her. Personally I feel responding just fuels the fire further but that's just my opinion. I think that if you have a blog that you advertise and want people to follow, then you should have thicker skin and rise above the pettiness. As much as you have a right to post about what you want, other people have the right to comment on your post, irrespective if they agree/disagree with you and you shouldn't take it too much to heart.

Anyways, that's not the point of this post. In her rant she mentioned the people involved by name and because of her rant, I was intrigued and motivated to go and find this blog that had this post about her. Sucks doesn't it that your acknowledgement of the post through your blog rant translated to this other person getting blog traffic. Hence the whole attitude of rising above such things. I don't think it makes you a pushover, a more laissez-faire attitude would probably stop those comments. These people only want to provoke you into fighting back and get all pissy exactly like what this particular blogger did.

Again, went off topic. Back on track, so after much investigating (i.e: googling) in which I had to trudge through 2 other blogs, also discussing the post as some of them were cited in the controversial post as well OR are friends with those mentioned, before finally getting to the much talked about blog. I read her most recent entry and was a bit taken aback by the profanity in the post, this person is very direct and unapologetic about what she (although the blog identity is female, it could also be a he, who knows, it's the internet) blogs about. One of her blog's aims are to rag on people who blog incessantly about their high-flying lifestyles in a manner, she claims, that serves not to incite healthy envy/feelings of admiration but just a feeling of distaste at the person's perceived lordliness above everyone else, their indulgent self-love. C'mon, I believe all people who blog have a bit of narcissm drive them. I'll admit to it. I love seeing my words in print. Even if it's just me reading them. But through all this ballyhoo, again I would say, people, blog about anything you want. I went through her blog and all I can say is OUCH! I would really not want to be at the end of her whacking stick. But free speech and all, whatever.

Ok, the actual surprising thing was that she also unmasks people who commit blog plagiarism. I did a double take on this. WTH? What in the world could blog plagiarism mean? I found out soon enough. Apparently there are people out there who copy other people's posts and make it their own. My reaction to this was to go "HUH?". Why would you want to copy someone else's thoughts and pass it off as yours? Don't you have any ideas of your own? What is the point of blogging if it's not to speak about issues that concern/bug you? I mean I find it hilarious there are people out there who go around filching other people's blog posts, lol. As I'm typing that I actually giggled. I just find it unbelievable that some people would stoop to this. If you don't have any ideas then don't blog about that topic right? Anyway, this person who outs these 'plagiarist' provides incriminating evidence of the plagiarist and the plagiarised. *Snigger* I just find it funny.

Phew, well, that's actually how I spent my lunchtime.....and yes, it may seemed like a waste of my lunch hour but who cares, I found I had something to say about it. Pilfer my post anyone? :P

when your body age is older than you really are

I don't actually know whether to laugh or be insulted. Perhaps I'm feeling a lil bit of both. I was perusing the January issue of Cosmo when I came across this article on adult acne according to your age group. I read the article titled 'Blemish-Proof Your Skin' with some interest since, as I blogged about in December, I had suffered from a bout of acne on my jawline. As I read the characteristics of acne in your twenties, I realized that none of the points listed resonated with my experiences. It stated that in your twenties, due to hormonal changes and product experimentation, acne usually affects the t-zone area and twenty-somethings will see occurences of blackheads, whiteheads and sometimes pus-filled cysts (I have had these kinda zits at some point during my teens but it still warrants a ewwwwww!).

I kept on reading the article, moving on towards acne in your 30s. And that's when I became uncomfortable. It mentioned that dryness and inflammation are characteristics of 30s acne. Check, I have an extremely dry and flaky patch in the middle of my forehead exactly at my hairline. Another point said skin cells regenerate at a slower rate, creating flakes that get trapped under skin surface, forming stubborn blemishes. Check, I have VERY stubborn blemishes, some taking months to disappear, those dark marks really annoy me. Sun damage can exacerbate redness. Check, sunny climate = sun exposure, part of my routine that I've incorporated beginning mid of last year was to consistently apply SPF50 face base as I became more aware of the melanoma effect. Stress due to big life changes such as getting married, having a baby, working longer hours which keep the level of the stress hormone cortisol high for long periods of time. It is the leading cause of adult acne. Lack of sleep also compunds the problem as cortisol levels dip when we snooze so not sleeping keeps 'em up. Ok, no to the first, no to baby but major red alert for stress cause number three and four!

Ok, the causes were spot on, ringing through my head and reading further just made me laugh out loud. It goes on to say that acne in your 30s strike along the U zone, the jawline and cheeks (these areas are where the hormone cortisol is most active). Skin is also driest and dead skin cells get trapped in the pores causing small, red bumps to appear. Blemishes may leave dark marks for a few weeks due to melanin pigmentation increasing when in the 30s. The thought running through my head was 'Are they talking about me specifically?' Everything stated was what I went through.

I mean I'm grateful for the 'diagnosis' and the subsequent suggestions but hell, I'm still a coupla years away from reaching 30! This seems unfair that my skin is aging faster than the rest of me. I'm not particularly, to quote Metallica's 'The Memory Remains', mirror vain, but damn, does that not deal a blow to your self-esteem. I feel it's quite a funny situation as I've always been mistaken for younger for my age but this article has been a reality check of sorts :) It means, all you people who thought I looked at most 24, go get your eyes checked, apparently I'm more 30-ish than 20-ish! Laughs, well, it's a small dent in my ego but I'll live. I mean I'm slowly changing my habits and taking sun exposure more seriously, it'll take awhile to see any difference. Can't expect a recent routine of spf slathering to result in miracles right away, can you?

my raspberry mulberry's first night out

Yea, my sis came and visited me last week, bringing along a bunch of goodies from home, one of them being my lurverly raspberry mulberry. We went out to dinner one night at this swanky restaurant so I thought I'd give my gorgeous purse her debut appearance. This is what I wore for her first public showcase.


I thought I'd go low key on the attire front, nothing too dressy, make the purse the focus of the outfit. On another plus, I also managed to start one of the things on my 2009 to-do list; wear an item of clothing bought but never worn. That black tunic top (some Korean brand, it was bought at one of those one-of-a-kind type mall stalls) was purchased in 2002 I think and I've probably ever worn it in the house only, before I changed into something else to go out, prior to this occasion of course. As it is on the sheer side I paired it with the Xhilaration long vest, also newly acquired. And to maintain the air of casual chic I was trying to achieve, I wore them with my inherited-from-my-sister Gap 'Long and Leans'. Shoes were a pair of grey heels. I also added a black scarf to the ensemble as the night was quite chilly.

All things considered, it was a successful outing, good food, great conversations and my beautilicious Mulberry.

dig deep to find the gems

I just returned from a whole morning spent on my hands and knees digging through mounds and mounds of clothes at a local flea market. It was my first time there and I thoroughly LOVED it!

Activities like these require a whole lot of patience and a keen eye. Also, quite importantly, no squeamish feelings about pre-owned clothes/accessories/shoes. I have no qualms about wearing second-hand clothes/accessories but a bit of hesitation when it comes to shoes. A colleague and good friend of mine who is the expert in flea-marketing picked me up around 8 this morning and we headed straight for the market. To get the good stuff you have to be early, otherwise you'll be left with the rejected rejects that nobody else wanted to buy (probably the original reason it's in a pile of second-hand stuff).

I've bought pre-owned clothes before but usually in a brick-and-mortar store, not out in the open and most times kneeling on the ground next to another hunter so this was a completely different experience for me. Many times, you're digging through the clothes and suddenly see a gem of a find but before you can get to it, someone has reached out and grabbed it first. First time novices like moi became victim multiple times but I figured if it was meant to be, I'd get it. In the end I walked away with 2 shirts, 1 tunic, a baby tee, a long-sleeved tee and 5 belts for a grand total of USD6.60 :) My friend, the expert, on the other hand ended up with 5 belts, 2 skirts and 6 tops for USD9.50. Her skills impress me, at one point she filched a shirt someone else had in their pile to buy when she left it unattended and the other girl could only look on helplessly as she quickly went to pay for it.

Anyways, I'm extremely happy with my bounty and this is definitely something I want to do again!

UPDATE:
I've washed my flea market bounty and thought I'd post a pic of the kind of stuff you can get at these markets. You can find really great stuff in still quite new conditions. The purple top though looks washed out in this picture but I swear it's a bright violet colour and looks new, I couldn't figure out my camera settings so that the colour would be closer to what it really is. Anyways, behold mateys, my pre-owned treasures....Aaaar!

getting creative with clothes

Organizing my closet, I came upon this brown Old Navy mid-calf length skirt I had not worn for ages. Perhaps I had tired it out when I first got it, wearing it to work countless times and that's why it was sitting at the back of my dresser for so long. I took it out and giving it an appraisal, thought I should come up with new ways I could rework this sedate brown skirt into my current wardrobe. Its sensible length and its earth tone made it great for office wear but I was trying to think outside the box and transform it into something more dressy.

And the key word being dressy, I had a lightbulb moment. It could easily be converted into a knee-length tube dress! After that the ideas kept rolling and I practically spent away a whole Saturday afternoon just mix and matching, playing dress up (I don't know about any other women in their twenties but playing around with clothes never gets old for me), cultivating my inner stylist. And to my delight I believe I hit upon some inspired ensembles and captured pics of my 3 best combinations.


My first choice for best of the rest is as a simple tube dress. Because of the length of the skirt, when it is brought up to chest level, the hemline falls to just above the knee, not too short and not too prim. Accessorizing with the belt under the bustline gives the converted tube dress character, working with the neutral solid colour of the skirt and making it look jazzy. It becomes a sexy yet simple night out with the girls outfit. Completely clubbing/dance floor ready.

Next in line was a high-waisted skirt and floral tee combination. Firstly, I put on this pretty brown floral tee newly purchased from H&M. Still hiking up the top of the skirt to chest level but on top and over the tee and by folding the top down and securing with a thin belt underneath the folded area, adding an elasticized belt over the area where the t-shirt and skirt are joined, and ta-daa, we get this completely cute day outfit. Wear it while having brunch al fresco or go window-shopping at the mall, perhaps it could qualify even as a cute fourth date outfit to let the personality shine through a bit more.

Lastly, an update to office wear. Still working the tube dress angle but as the workplace isn't for dressing too casual/provocative, pairing it with the black long-sleeved Mossimo boyfriend cardigan I got from Target. By layering the cardigan over the top of the converted skirt and finishing it off with the same belt from the first outfit to tie the two pieces together (I also pinned a small brooch right in between my breastbone which is covered up by the belt), we now have a pretty, fashionable and office appropriate dress. The look is chic and still professional. I love how it gives the illusion of a layered full skirt. Unfortunately, since being posted here, my daily office attire actually consists of the company polo tee and depending on the day, if there are meetings, black pants, if not, jeans. It's pretty much casual when you are away from HQ. So basically, if I want to look overdressed and out of place for work, I could wear this ensemble.

I don't deny it, I love clothes. The thrill of buying new clothes is always great but what also gives me great satisfaction is when I take a tired piece from my cupboard and am able to breathe new life into it. Hey, my fashion style may not be for everybody and it could very well be that I'm the only person who thinks I look good in them but as long as the outfit makes me feel good, other people's thoughts don't bother me.

a labour of love

I'm knackered. Not through doing any physical activities. I was just simply lying on my bed in front of my laptop and spending the last couple of hours redesigning my blog. I was previously using the dots template, one of the limited choices of designs blogger.com provides for newbie bloggers but in keeping with my personal improvements goals, I thought I'd challenge myself into giving my blog a makeover. I'm the least creatively arty person I know (I can't draw/sketch anything good, even my doodles are rubbish) and putting myself through hours of colour pallettes and image editing in MSPaint (medieval right?) is what I would perceive as a form of excruciating torture.

Thank god for 'TheCutestBlogOnTheBlock.com' where I got this background. That simplified the whole process quite a bit. The site provides free backgrounds with some of the most fun designs I've seen. It took me quite some time to go through their inventory and after I had picked out a few designs that I liked, I needed to test drive them. The method they suggested to incorporate the background into your existing template is simple. Just go to the 'Layout' tab on your blogger dashboard and pick 'Add A Gadget'. Once the new window opens, scroll to 'HTML/Javascript', click on the '+' to add the script provided, save and voila, background incorporated! This made the background design elimination process easy to do as you just have to modify the background design image location in the javascript. After making my choice, I, however, did not like the minima layout you have to revert to prior to applying the background so what I did next was a bit of coding modification to the dots template to incorporate the background from 'TheCutestBlogOnTheBlock.com', doing away completely with the javascript, enabling moi to set up the blog exactly as I'm comfortable with.

Nonetheless it's done now, I worked hard and it most definitely took me more time than I would have otherwise spent on something like this. I do have to say I like the results despite a few sloppy editing :) I think it best reflects the state of mind I'm NOT usually in, airy and carefree (those 2 words could be describing the same thing, I can't tell the difference right now, suffering from pantone overdose). I do wish I had fluffy pastel thoughts 24/7 though, that would definitely be a trip :D

recessionista/depressionista, two words I despise-a

Laughs. On the lame scale that definitely was a 10 but I thought I'd add a bit of nerdy humour to soften up the words to come. Anyways, recessionista and depressionista are not really recent additions to our vocabulary, it's been bandied about for quite some time now but I strongly feel we could do without the incessant use of them. Now I know this is not zen-like to have a rant about words no less, but it just irks me how people seem to be carelessly mouthing them with increasing frequency since October of last year as if it was THE trend to jump on before it went out of fashion. I'm not sure about everyone else but I personally feel that the fashion world or whoever it was coining these 'catchy' terms to describe a woman who keeps up with the trends fashion-wise despite the economic hit faced by most people is simply silly and outrageous. Recessionista? Depressionista? C'mon, I think it's insulting to try to spin a serious situation and make it sound so flighty and hip. It's not hip that Citibank is laying off tens of thousands of people nor was it cool when IBM let go of more than 50K employees. Hell, even the people at Google are having to downsize 100 employees.

A look at the American consumer spending for the holiday season of '08 shows that people are really feeling the pinch of the world economic slump. And for the fashion industry, there are designers with plans of forgoing fashion week and going back to basics by holding collection unveilings at their headquarters/office/design space, inviting only potential buyers. No more of the whole celebrity-centric hoopla as these designers also need to cut costs. FYI, celebrity attendance at designer shows are not entirely an altruistic gesture of support, because said celeb just looooves that designer. There are perks offered to have that celebrity's stamp of approval. Fame sells and a picture snapped of a famous celeb's face in the front row of your runway show.....KA-CHING, it's quite the money maker. But now, I guess many figure the payoff is not as lucrative or cost effective.

To me, a person who is fashionable is simply a fashionista. It doesn't matter whether you can afford to spend thousands on couture pieces or you shop at Salvation Army, if someone thinks your look is great and is in keeping with the trends perpetuated by the tons of fashion magazines, then you are a fashionista. Coining the term recessionista/depressionista to describe someone who still manages to be fashionable in lean times by scaling back on the Diors, Marc Jacobs, Gucci, Prada and DKNY is basically implying those who previously wore ONLY couture or high end brands could qualify to be called a fashionista. Gimme a break. I have seen completely horrendous items on the runways and on the bodies of Hollywood starlets. If simply dressing in known brand names that costs more than the hosehold income of 100 families in Darfur gives you the privilege of being a fashionista then I don't aspire to be one.

I think in recent times we women as a collective have aided in this skewered view of what makes a woman fashionable. I'll admit, I do wish I owned more designer handbags and could afford to splurge on a pair of Christian Louboutin but I don't believe wearing couture labels from head-to-toe defines a trendy person. I don't find it wrong to follow trends, hell, I bought into the Gladiator shoes hype, maxi dress hoopla and found an excuse to work leggings into any and all occasions throughout 2008 and still even now but I did not get my Gladiator sandals from Dior nor did my maxi dress come from Gucci and I certainly didn't get expensive leggings designed by Ms Lohan. This whole ridiculous creation of 2 words that basically describes women who are keeping trendiness alive by going low budget or designers suddenly racing to come up with 'affordable' collections (AND THEN acting as if it was some genius brainwave that deserves a nobel prize), is sickening to those who have been doing so waaaaay before the economic woes began (hey, as one of my old post suggests, I'm all for diffusion lines by high end designers but if your price point only begins at USD100, it ain't budget). It is insulting to suddenly suggest that cheap is chic too. Cheap has ALWAYS been chic, some people were just too snooty to notice is all.

i officially disheart barnesandnoble.com

My experiences with their customer service rep is like a trip to the dentist- numbingly painful. Pulling teeth is the expression I believe.

In the past 2 weeks I have communicated with THREE different reps and all of them say something conflicting. The first email reply I received seemed helpful enough. Madelyn, the first rep, conveyed their apologies and gave me 2 options of having my original order fulfilled or have them credit back the amount as well as providing me a prepaid Merchandise Return Label to send back the wrong book at no extra cost to moi. I chose to have them fulfill my order. After responding to that email, suddenly I have George coming into the picture apologizing for the miscommunication on the first email and to check with my local post office if the book has already arrived. I had to explain my situation again, copying Madelyn's reply to me and stating how I want the issue to be resolved. Yet today, I received another email from one Steven who apologizes again for everything and now wants to know if I want to keep the book or have them credit back the difference and if I want my original order fulfilled then I have to place a different order with them. What happened to the option of just sending my order and me sending back the wrong book? I want to communicate with Madelyn.....she was nice and simple :(

Now, I have options I don't want and I am extremely annoyed. The situation is deteriorating into bedlam and I have no idea why B&N does not just assign one person to deal with my problem. I should have never bothered and perhaps that is their strategy. Give you the runaround till you just roll over and play dead. So to speak. I cannot articulate it any better than this, therefore, taking a page out of Tina Fey's Golden Globes '09 acceptance speech for best actress in tv (or something to that effect) and with a little bit of paraphrasing, "barnesandnoble.com, YOU SUCK BIG TIME!".

Sigh.

detoxing and exercise

I am very exhausted. From detoxing and exercise.

I started my green tea based detox plan on Friday night and have regularly been drinking the tea twice a day after meals. I've drank detox teas from other brands where I never quite manage to finish the product cos of the taste but this brand I'm using doesn't have a funky taste so it's been a very pleasant experience. If regulating bowel movement is the aim of the tea then I have to say that it's been working great. However, during work days, since I do not wish to hog the bathroom at the office, I will decrease the intake just to once a day after dinner when I am safely ensconced in the privacy of my own home.

Also, I pushed myself to exercise for a little more than 2 hours today, a combination of jump ropes, step aerobics and television. The only way I was going to distract myself from thinking about how much time I'm spending to exercise was by watching some tv. I kept telling myself, "Another 5 minutes" or "Ok, wait till it goes to commercial", then the next thing I realized it's past 2 hours. And my body has now gone all jelloid. But in a good, pleasant way. Hmmm, pleasant must be the word of the hour, I've used it twice in this post :)

I also tried to eat healthier and made some salmon burgers for dinner the past two days using Bumble Bee's Alaska Pink Salmon and a recipe I got from their website. I have to say that it tasted mighty fine :D Although for breakfast I did whip up some banana walnut pancakes and topped them off with a scoop of rocky road ice cream so maybe my healthy eating efforts were for naught.

Anywho, it has been a quiet yet enjoyable first weekend on my own (despite the cold, windy weather competing to top the Santa Ana winds of California).

global warming has seriously messed up the weather

It is soooooo frickin cold right now! My hands and feet are freezing, the wind is blowing so hard it's rattling the window panes and I'm wearing 3 layers of clothing with my blanket wrapped tight around my body. I dread going to shower in the morning cos my heater is on the fritz and ain't working so I'll have to do a few trips with the water pot, crossing the length of the ice cold floor of my kitchen, living room and bedroom to be able to have a nice warm bath.

But seriously, in a span of one year, the weather change has been really stark. Although it doesn't snow here and it's the biting cold wind is what characterizes their winter, I noticed the 'cold period' has moved from the normal November-December months to January. We were still experiencing relatively warm days in December which I had thought was odd cos last year at the same time I was going to work bundled up in double layers but it looks like 'wintertime' has finally arrived, albeit very late. However, the winds are so strong now, much worse than before and the cold is nearly unbearable, at night it wakes me up often and during the day freezes my limbs (think along the lines of Summer in San Francisco).

I can't help but think this is global warming at work, messing with the climate. It's scary how our actions can seriously affect the environment in this way. In recent years I have been more aware of the issues affecting the environment and have tried in my own small ways to reduce any environmentally unfriendly behavior. I can only hope that any of my small actions will contribute to make a difference.

of white rabbits being pulled out of the top hat of the universe

I understand if it seems I sound delirious but I'm only paraphrasing a line from a book I'm currently reading. In one of my posts, I've put forth the thought that one's success at completing a book depends on one's readiness for the book's contents and my recent resurrection of "Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaardner has, in my situation anyways, confirmed this small theory.

I have been in possession of "Sophie's World" since June of 2006 when I came upon its bright pink cover illustrating a giant top hat with the solar system contained within, a girl riding a question mark out of it chasing an astral(?) white rabbit in my local bookstore. I was completely ecstatic. It had recently been put on my must-read list and it seemed like fate played a hand when I happened upon a huge display, stack upon stack of the book. I bought it, excited to plough through its pages, hoping to gain a lot of philosophical insights into life, society, the world at large and of course one's self. At that point in time, I was buying up a lot of the classics, looking into being more enlightened and less frivolous, perhaps in search of who I was or wanted to be. But to my consternation, everytime I attempted to read through it on my train ride to work, I would end up yawning my way past a coupla pages and then get stuck and have no idea of what I'd just read. I kept having to go back and read the start of the chapter, it started becoming a chore and would end up dumping the book back into my bag. Thinking that the right environment would motivate better reading, I attempted on a few leisurely Saturdays reading at the window seat in my living room but that only served to put me to sleep. As such, I'm embarassed to admit that I only managed to get to page 38, the start of the chapter on Democritus, with no clue as to what I had read, and most of all understood nothing. I gave up on "Sophie's World" then, set it aside with no specific timeframe of when I would pick it up again. Occasionally, during times I am trying to figure out where I'm going to place all the new books I've bought, I will glance up at my bookshelves, at the rack of books I've bought but haven't had the will to read and see among them, "Sophie's World" mocking me.

Ok, lol, all delusions of taunting books aside, it really made me feel guilty buying new books when I had quite a few that I still hadn't touched yet sitting on my bookshelf and that's when during a trip back home in October of last year, instead of getting round to the bookstore to load up on some new staples, I collected all the books I had left unread and took it with me here. Admittedly, I was also quite dead broke coming back from an expensive vacation and needed to save some money but all in all my intentions were noble, it was time these books were read. On another side note, I buy a lot of books in a year but only buy when I am back in my home country for tax breaks reasons and because I am a member of the different bookstore chains that give moi member discounts/points :). But for whatever the motivations, I find that so far, all the books I previously avoided reading have given me what I was expecting from them when I first got them. In December, I finished John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" and came away with a greater understanding of the behavior of humankind. Having been previously afraid of being maligned by the yawn syndrome, I was amazed to discover how fast I got through the story and how much I received from it. It inspired me to try "Sophie's World" again. That's why I made reading "Sophie's World" one of my New Year's resolution and to prevent procrastination, I gave myself till the end of January to complete it.

I started today, I cracked open the book, my bookmark from my first attempt still on page 38. I was thinking, should I just continue off from whence I stopped or begin from the start. Considering the first go did not yield me great results (i.e: understanding), I decided I would be brave and begin at page 1. Whether it is due to personal growth, age or better attention span, I find that my second try is certainly more rewarding. I have been better able to grasp the thoughts/ideologies and enjoyed the story-telling that I'd previously mistaken as dull, droll and uninspiring. I am at page 112 now and have decided to stop for today. Give myself a bit of time to absorb what I've read. I am taking it slow and steady with this one. At points in the book where I find myself confused, I go back and read the paragraph again, to gain the clarity that eluded me on the first read. I am giving it my full attention. My approach to reading in general is I always hope to come away learning something new. Having never taken a course in philosophy before, this is a whole new avenue of learning for me. Not that I haven't heard of the great philosophers prior but I never really delved into their ideas, concepts and thoughts. Its all well and good to throw out the names of Socrates/Plato/Aristotle but I've always wondered what was it that made them the great thinkers of their time. And through "Sophie's World", I have the oppurtunity to get a glimpse into that world and see for myself, the foresight and/or theoretical flaws in their thoughts that gave birth to and shaped modern(?) civilizations.

I only just finished the chapter on Aristotle and am about to embark on philosphy in the Hellenistic period so all my musings are based on the pre-Socratic philosphers (a.k.a The Natural Philosophers) and the great Greek philosophers. I still have a ways to go to reach Descartes, Kierkegaard, Marx, Darwin, Freud and more but thus far, my re-introduction to philosophy and philosophers' has been enlightening. I can only attest for myself but I find it is truly a great "beginner's guide" to philosophy and has left me filled with thoughts to ponder on.

i owe an apology to.....

Chester and Mike for prematurely dissing their vocals during the Projekt Revolution Milton Keynes concert in June 2008. Ok, whomever were responsible for the sound editing on the audio release of the concert should seriously look into the job they did on that album cos in the concert dvd ALL OF LINKIN PARK WERE FAN-F*#@ING-TASTIC!



I recently got the 'Linkin Park: Road To Revolution (Live At Milton Keynes)' dvd and LP were completely ON-FORM and incredible. The entire atmosphere was crazy awesome and I can only wish I had been apart of it. The crowd was beyond huge and totally great, they definitely sang better than the ones in 'Live In Texas' during the crowd participation segment, in my opinion anyways :) I loved how they slowed down 'Pushing Me Away' and how they mixed lyrics from Fort Minor songs into Linkin Park staples. And of course, the 'Collision Course' material performances with Jay-Z ('Numb/Encore & 'Jigga What/Faint') was incredible. Best part was the drum solo during 'Bleed It Out', the drumming was AMAZING, I have never seen a drummer do that many beats(?) that fast and sound fabulous at it. His hands and feet were working all over his drum kit, what a complete multi-tasker, it was just jaw-dropping to watch (if it isn't clear yet, I have a major crush on Rob Bourdon so I can talk him up till I'm blue in the face). All in all, you can really see the maturity of their performances between this and 'Live In Texas'. Both are great recordings along with the 'Collision Course: Live At Roxy Theatre' and 'Live at Rock AM Ring' but I will have to say that this is my favourite recording of them so far. By no means is it perfect as Chester has moments where he strained to reach the notes but if you have been touring for the better part of 2008, I'll cut you some slack, the moments were few anyhow. This video also gave a fair share of coverage among the band members and that was one of the things I loved about it as a lot of people forget that the lead singers are only a sum of a band's parts and to be able to appreciate the roles of the other guys in the band was something I enjoyed.

So this DEFINITELY gets 5 STARS, TWO THUMBS UP and my sincerest apologies to Chester and Mike.

i totally covet.....this Kenzo kimono dress worn by Cate Blanchett

My first coveted item of the year 2009 is this Kenzo kimono-style dress worn by Cate Blanchett at one of the many promotional events she attended for SK-II in Japan. Cate was invited for a visit to the land of the rising sun to learn more about luxury skincare brand SK-II's history and their signature ingredient pitera after being made the SK-II's new global ambassador. All reasons why Cate's in Japan aside, the dress she is wearing is simply gorgeous!

The stunningly simple yet breathtaking design and beautiful colour combinations make this dress a hit with me. I love the cinched waist and how the skirt flares. The images of the dress were taken from a January '09 issue of a fashion magazine I was reading and that was the best shots I could take with my camera short of scanning the magazine which I was not about to do as that's just too much unnecessary work. I tried to find better images of this dress online but there were none which I found quite strange. I am unsure when this promo tour took place and if I am right and this took place sometime during the tail end summer of '08 then most likely that dress is not one from a current Kenzo collection or if it was a recent event then this dress might be part of the S/S '09 collection. But season schmeason, a gorgeous dress like this one does not conform to just spring, summer, autumn or winter. It's a dress for all seasons!

this chapter is closed

Well, I've waved goodbye to her, no tears people, we're all adults. Well, maybe our eyes had a little sheen to them but we were strong and just hugged, said a few words and made our peace. And now I have returned to my suddenly very empty apartment. I am understandably a bit upset and feeling more than a little sorry for my sudden state of girlfriend-less aloneness but that's life.

I'm doing a bit of mourning right now and then I'm going to brush it off and carry on. Can't be joined at the hip forever can we? So although I'm commiserating my current predicament while preparing to eat my deliciously executed (if I do say so myself) 2-Step Savory Chicken dinner, recipe courtesy of CDKitchen.com (submitted by one Karen from Iowa, USA), I'm going to hold up my root beer float and propose a toast, to new adventures and greater experiences, bring it on 2009!

great normal simple saturday

I had another fantastic day. For the better part of 2008, it's been rare that I get uninterrupted weekends but since my mega project is coming to the end of the implementation phase and we are on course to full fledge launch, my responsibilites have lightened somewhat. Aside from a bunch of reports due which I had done just before I started this post, I am quite scot-free and loving it.

Despite this being the last weekend I have a roomie in my apartment before she leaves to start a new life as a full-time wife, it's been a great saturday. My fab soon-to-be ex roomie and I spent our last few hours together doing all types of girly activities, a last hurrah before she goes off and leaves me all alone in a foreign country. All things considered I'm doing fine, I have had since May when she tied the knot to get used to the idea of staying on by myself and being the only gal in the team but as the countdown nears, of course I am a lil bit on the emo side. After being in each other's hair for the past 7 years, now to go to communications via email and perhaps the occasional phone call is going to be tough but we'll manage. Bonds have been forged and they won't be so easy to break.

Ok, so we spent a lot of time at the local malls. Spent a wad of cash on clothes and some essentials for the house (just moi). Then we booked ourself an appointment for one hour of shiatsu massage. Completely heavenly! Ate a late lunch at a tapas bar and headed off home. After a bit of downtime where I worked off, hopefully, a third of my tapas consumption and had another leisurely dip in my Creamy Candy accented water, we arranged our projector and had one of our infamous movie nights complete with white popcorn with chedder cheese. We watched 3 movies in succession; "My Best Friend's Girl", "How To Lose Friends And Alienate People" and "The Duchess".

It's now midnight and we're exhausted, headed for bed. She doesn't know about this blog and I am unlikely to tell her but I just want to express how thankful I feel to have had her along with me throughout our uni days and for practically my entire professional career. I hope this new adventure she embarks on will give her everything she wishes for in life. I love you, gal, you will be soooooooo missed!

mellow is my middle name

I just had the most perfect end to a working day. Like I mentioned, I did not get any time off during the past 2 weeks as Christmas time and the period leading up to New Year isn't made into such a big hoopla here. I was working on Christmas day which I don't mind as much since it's not a religious celebration for me so the only day off was the actual New Year's Day itself and since I was a bit under the weather, the day was spent recuperating in bed.

Woke up January 2nd 2009 and I'm feeling good. The fever's gone and my nose is no longer runny. Showered and went off to the daily grind. Work was good today, no incidences, emergencies or catastrophic events. I got home quite early as well as the roads were pretty empty. First things first, checked my work email to make sure I don't have any outstanding work before the weekend (I know it seems as if I'm married to that email account and in some ways it is my primary relationship). Then I decided to do a bit of step aerobics while watching the movie 'Wild Child' starring Emma Roberts (Julia Roberts' niece for anyone interested). An hour and a half later, done with exercise and feeling less guilty about the pounds I most likely gained during my 2 week hiatus, I popped in the Big Mac I bought earlier into the convection cooker for reheating and that was dinner (hehehe, I put in the extra half hour of step to compensate for the Big Mac).

The best part was my completely relaxing bath complete with Lush's Creamy Candy bath bar and vanilla scented candles. I love how the vanilla scent from the bath water clings to my skin and hair, the aroma makes me feel so serene. It's also a plus that I have a king size bed to lounge on as I do some online bill payments and a little window shopping. It's been a good day.

the party poppers have popped, that leaves us with.....

the start of a new year, Happy 2009! This is the beginning of another 365 days, another 54 weeks, another 12 months. And new (or renewed) New Year's resolutions? What are your thoughts? Are you for them, against them, couldn't care less about them? My own take on them, I have never truly bothered with resolutions made over the new year. I'm from the school of thought made popular by sports brand giant nike; if you want to change, just do it, swoosh :D That being said, when a new year comes around, I do think about the things that I want to get around to doing (more of a nostalgic habit rather than a serious commitment) but not since I was 14 have I put pen to paper and wrote down a list.

And of course, anyone knows that you don't need to wait for the beginning of a new calendar year to make changes in one's life. But it's actually the idea of a fresh start to a hot-out-of-the-oven year that is appealing, motivating and inspiring to most. My own plans for change were put into motion when I started this blog in October, inspired by "A Year In High Heels" and a crossroads of sorts in my life, and this declaration is merely a continuation of my life improvement goals. Since my main aim is personal growth therefore I'm trying out new things, things that I normally wouldn't do, have previously failed to keep doing or haven't had the guts to do. Some are frivolous, some a test of my will, some are to break me out of my comfort zone. Under that umbrella of thought, I thought I'd do a simple new year's list, one with, god willing, achievable goals. And so I unveil .....

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ZLENA'S 2009 LIST

1NE
Finish reading "Sophie's World" by the end of January and "Atlas Shrugged" by mid 2009 (June at most, I know I'm giving this a wide berth but at least I'm not procrastinating till the end of the year) as these are the two books that seem to trigger my yawn syndrome.

2WO
Buy matching pair of undergarment cos every girl should own at least one matching set and I, as of right now, own none, I just colour-coordinate. And sometimes I don't :P

THR3E
Go to the cinema and watch a movie solo (I have a self-conscious paranoia of being viewed as a saddo with no friends if seen alone at a cinema but eating alone is somehow ok).

4OUR
Start being more "green" by being more aware of my own actions like remembering to take the plug out of electrical outlets when I leave the house or not putting the tv in standby mode.

FIV5
Have 10K in untouchable savings by the end of this year.

6IX
Make more effort in learning the local language, I foresee this as a tough one to keep as I get complacent when the locals can speak English to me.

SE7EN
Attain my goal weight of 120 lbs from my current 127 lbs through regular exercise (5 days a week) by mid-2009.

EI8HT
Detox every 3 months.

NIN9
No bag-buying, purses and clutches included, unless it's in Paris, France and the piece is a Louis Vuitton ( I'm a little bit sad about not being able to get the Double Flap Hayden Harnett for Target handbag but a promise has been made and also at this point the gay Paree trip looks unlikely for this year but having something to 'look forward' to might help strengthen my resolve).

10
Wear any and all clothes bought but yet to be worn. There's a few, ok a little bit more than a few, new pieces (are they still considered new if they were bought almost a year and a half ago although still with tags?) sitting in my wardrobe constantly waiting for the right occasion to be worn. Somehow there never seems to be any since I always revert back to the reliable standbys so the aim is to make the clothes work for any occasion.

E11EVEN (I know there are no double L's in eleven, just making the number fit in)
Own the Nokia N97 by the end of the year.

TW12VE
Bring down the total of my student loans to 15K by December. I hate having this debt hanging over my head but considering the study loan powers that be have eliminated the monthly 'administrative fee' they kept charging on top of the monthly payments I can safely say this target is very much achievable, I just have to keep my commitment to the fixed monthly amount I've set for myself.

THIR13EN
To break my bad (for my beauty :P) habit of perpetual frowning. I have a habit of creasing my forehead when I'm in thought, doing work or doing nothing and after nearly a lifetime of it, I am probably on the cusp of that time where I can no longer get away with it wrinkle-free. This of course includes all eye squinting activities as well. Those wrinkles will come, I'm just attempting to delay their arrival a tad. Also, to cross my legs less when I am seated as it is simply bad for you all around.

FOUR14EN
To be a better communicator. Sometimes I forget that in life you have to nurture the relationships, platonic or otherwise, that you have. As I am a person who is comfortable with her own company, I tend to allow friendships to languish in the back of my mind, occasionally it'll rise up in my consciousness and I'll think, what's going on in so and so's life but still not quite enough to get in touch. Don't get me wrong, once I'm your friend, you have me for life but I tend to be too self-absorbed to keep it going if you're not in my life on a daily basis and it makes me sad when I look back and think of how we've lost touch like that. In saying that, I want to make a more concerted effort to take an interest in the going-ons of my closest pals. And also my family, I need to talk to them on a more regular basis. Should not go a week without talking to them once.

F15TEEN
To be more zen. I tend to get high strung especially during that lovely time of the month so I want to make more of a conscious effort to not allow the little things to bug me unnecessarily. Achieving this will undoubtedly help towards lessening the possibilities of coronary-related incidences and make me feel less guilt cos I won't be acting like such a biatch :)

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And that's my list of 15 things I would love to start/do/be this year. Having it in digital print allows me at the tail end of '09, to reflect on how many I have managed to achieve (if any) and those I didn't complete and why. I know that some of the items on the list (i.e: items 4, 6-8 and 13-15) will require a continuous commitment on my part extending beyond this year alone. I know the hardest ones to live up to are the ones to do with my character and I'm up against 20-plus years of ingrained behavior but I'm feeling inspired and motivated to prove to myself change can happen if you want it bad enough. Here's hoping 2009 will be a great year for the world at large and on a personal level, an improved-in-the-most-positive-of-ways Zlena.