Hello. How are you doing?

Phew. Finally I am able to sit down for a while and sift through emails and blogs and whatnot. It has been a tremendously hectic week, and I'm glad it's Friday as well!

Let's see what I have been up to: Our 2nd wedding anniversary was on Monday so we took a day off and went enjoying red bean popsicle at the beach and going go go ga ga over cheap trinkets & other stuffs at Jonker Walk. On the way home we stopped by Sushi King to have our favorite grilled squid with lemon, which, even while typing this, I am re-enacting the scene from the Pavlovian experiments. To sum it up, we had a blast!

Suffice to say all good things will have to come to an end, and boy do they come to an end very abruptly, to be replaced with the humdrums at the office. There was an event which they planned to have months ago, but I was only informed last week so being the sole event management body in the department (and judging from my achievement I have the right to boast my effectiveness), I went all out looking for venue(s), catering, sorting out invitation list, designing invitations, following up with the participants, ushering, doing the registration, dimming the lights, expecting them to thank us in return but, they did not. Anyway, one good thing about organizing the stupid event is I got bored very easily entertaining them so I went and bought myself an iPod Touch. Ha.

Needless to say I am very very excited for the weekends to come. We have a free screening of Terminator Salvation at Pavilion on Sunday morning, of which Azry could not stop talking about it, and I am psyched as well for Wani's Hari Bintang Jatuh: 3 Venus at The Annexe on the same day at about afternoon. See you there?

Enough about me. So, how did your week go?

What to do on a Saturday evening

It's Friday, so I suggest let's go bust a super hero move tomorrow! As Kimberlee from Brown Button says, "Go out there and conquer the world, today is as good day as ever - especially if equipped with appropriate attire." Photo from Cynthia Perez.

Uninnocent elegant

Things have been pretty hectic lately. Our mailbox kittens were stolen, leaving Mother wailing all night and us sobbing along with her. I know, we're pretty naff to be emotional over stuffs like that - but try putting your feet in Mother's paws and having your babies taken away from you especially without you knowing it. Unless you're a heartless wrench you won't tear up even a bit.

Things at work hasn't helped much either. One ship with too many captains equals to absolute disaster. We have moving forward plans for everything, yet no actions or very little actions or actions taken last minute. To quote my exact situation from The National, I am just "another uninnocent elegant fall into the unmagnificent lives of adults". But looking on the bright side, I was hoping first of June will be an amazing new beginning. 

By the way, our 2nd anniversary is coming up Monday. The thought of going places left me feeling verklempt.

I hope you have the most beautiful days too. (Photo from Jessica Williams)

Christoph Niemann talks about Berlin Wall

... in paper weavings! Remember this stuff we were taught in craft classes at school, and our ketupat? Mr Niemann has always been such a genius.

Sometimes

Sometimes I want to yell at these people: Stop! Take a deep breath! Look around you. We are all busy, but there’s no reason to push people around, to treat other people like dirt. You are not the only one stressed, we are all in the same boat, so what we need to do is to keep it together from sinking. Calm down. Whatever it is, it’s going to be OK.

Although I am not too sure if they will hear me out. (Photo from sarafossette)

I love

Azry & I often joke about this, that one day we are going to flee to Helsinki or Prague or Albuquerque and start a new life there. Photo from WAFACOLLECTIVE.

Iz in ur mailbox

We found these darlings in our mailbox the other day.

To cut the story short, we caught Mother the cat crawling out of the cubbyhole mailbox one morning so Azry went to check what she was up to. The surprise finding three newborn kittens residing in our mailbox made us superfluously giddy for the days to come.

So if by any chance you happen to pass by and see us grinning & cooing into our mailbox, please don’t book us both separate rooms at the asylum yet (and even if you do, please just book one room for both of us so that we’d have the chance of harassing each other) because we are not insane – we just have three adorable kittens in our mailbox.

Cue in unison - Awwww!

Long live & prosper!

My weekends were pretty packed with good stuffs, which was a good thing!

We woke up early Saturday to run some errands. There were parcels to pick up, bills to pay and people to meet. Sue Anna Joe launched her Itudio Studio on that day, so we decided to stop by and stumbled upon our best friends Leila & Zaki, who also happened to be Sue Anna & Pitt’s best friends (I know the arrangement is somewhat complicated, but do take it the way it is.)

It was also my first time meeting Wani Ardy and her esteemed Askar(s) of whom I’ve heard a lot through Along, and I managed to persuade Azry to watch them playing music for a good few minutes before we were off to the in-laws', again.

On Sunday, I told Azry that we were going to relive our childhood through movies so I took him to watch Star Trek. I grew up with the series a lot (actually Dad made me watch them) and it was exciting being able to recite some of the signature lines verbatim and doing the Vulcan salute throughout the entire movie. It was awesome!

Dif-tor heh smusma. And a cheeseburger, please.

We still have kittens in our mailbox, but I think I'll reserve that story for another post.

Anyway, enough about me. How did your weekends go? (Star Trek: The Motion Picture stills taken from sine qua non)

"Love is a terrible business practised by fools."

There was a lovely movie on the telly last night called Little Manhattan – it was about a 10-year-old boy who fell in love with an 11-year-old girl who also happens to be his karate sparring partner. It was such a feel-good movie, nothing too corny, it was very honest and true. Set in Manhattan (hence the title), the movie does not forget to offer the audience an insight of the city’s surroundings. I fell in love with New York already.

My favorite scene was when Gabe (the boy) gets so jealous over Rosemary’s (the girl) new sparring partner, whom he referred to as “the young Ashton Kutcher”, that he screams “I hate you!” to her and then later regretting it and ended up wailing all night. The title of this post is what Gabe said after he decided that both love & girls suck.

Azry said he could definitely relate to this since we first met when we were both 13. I asked if he ever thought about giving me a peck on the cheek at that age, he said, “Every single day!” And then he added, “Of course I didn’t have the guts to. You have the look that might chop someone’s head off.”

Thank you darling. That was the sweetest thing I’ve heard all day.

Digital-organic

Working without a traditional brief, but instead from the reference words “refresh, renewal, rejuvenation”, London-based directing duo Ubik created Voxel, in which Jeremy Elder of Shape + Colour described: It’s digital-organic and a crazy study in opposities: the pixel water seems hard yet falls from the sky with an exquisite softness, and coral, though pixelated, slowly blooms as open and free as the space it’s encompassing.

I know I’ve fallen in love with gorgeous visuals a thousand times, but is it possible to fall in love with words? I imagine singer-songwriters have the best relationship with words (hi WRD!).

Not To Scale - Ubik ~ Voxel from ventilate.ca on Vimeo.

Another breathtaking video from Ubik is this spot for MTV Switch called 3650. I’m having sweaty palms as I watch these videos, just like the first time I fell in love with that adorable floppy-haired dude I married.

What are you optimistic about?

I am, by far, not the most optimistic person you have ever come across. I am known to have Plan B for all my plans, in case my initial plan goes awry. Usually they do anyway.

So if someone were to come up to me and ask, “What are you optimistic about?” I was stunned. I found myself flipping my mental Rolodex searching for keywords and constructing answers. Other than, “I’m convinced Azry will love me until eternity.” I can’t find myself having a positive take on other things. I’ll get back to you later once I can find something. 

What are you optimistic about? (Photo from Katrina Fricke, if anybody knows her site, please let me know.)

Friendly shadows

Last night Azry had to work late and I had our car parked in front of the train station waiting for him. To kill the time I popped in the Flight of the Conchords DVD into my laptop, put on the headphones and started watching away. I went through about two episodes as the dawn approached, when I noticed a suspicious shadow over-looming me. Somewhat bewildered, I turned around to find four schoolgirls still in their pinafores watching the DVD along with me through my car window.

Now I would have done what many others would might – shoo them away especially seeing them still around in their school uniforms at this hour (especially ALSO with my reputation being the angry woman). Instead, I rolled down the car window and posed this question, “Which one do you like best? Bret or Jemaine?”

Giving myself a stunned look, they looked at each other for a mere second then all of them chorused in unison, although some with different answers (I could not make up who had the most fans, they were a bit too loud for 4 girls at one time) “Bret! Jemaine! Cute lips! Cute goatee!” and "Don't know, just watching." They let out a shy giggle soon afterwards and one of them asked me, “What about you?”

“I like the guy who tries to sell everyone the cake.”

“Oh him!” They giggled again, exchanged glances with each other and gave me that look that probably says, “We should be going.” But they didn’t say anything; instead they walked away and waved. I waved back.

Moments like this restored my faith in humanity. Thank you Bret & Jemaine (and the guy who tries to sell everyone the cake). (Photo via FFFFOUND)

Can I do this?

This is impossible, at least for me. As usual, photo credit goes to the rightful owner via FFFFOUND.

Coffee with Shaza

The Internet is full of awesome people. Just yesterday I had the pleasure to meet lovely Shaza Hakim from Stampede for morning coffee and we had the most wonderful conversation about a couple of things - among others are cats, dreaded questions at weddings, our husbands' alter ego, random things to say to people you first met ( I think what I said to her was, "Shaza! In the flesh!" I know, what was I thinking?) but unfortunately I had to leave early for, you guessed it, more weddings. 

Shaza, it was a pleasure meeting you, and we should do this again the next time you're around in KL! I had a fabulous time.

Happy Mothers' Day

Today I wished my awesome mum Happy Mother's Day over the phone and us being a couple of humble folks and not the ones who often celebrate things over the top, she absent-mindedly went, "Oh is it today?"

Isn't she cute? You probably already know this, but I love you Mama!

The Sense

I know, I know, another video. But this one is truly a gem it's impossible not to put it up here.

Le Sens Propre is a short film written and directed by Blacklist's Cisma for Adobe’s Shortcut to Brilliant campaign for CS4. Goodby, Silverstein & Partners came to Cisma with a 98% open brief - "do whatever you want as long as you use CS4 to do it". The result is this beautiful film. Full credits, campaign info, a Q&A with Cisma and a selection of stills are posted here. (via cpluv)

Cisma's "Le Sens Propre" from glossy inc on Vimeo.

On another note, it seems that as the clock is ticking, I am more overloaded with work & to top it off the whole office is having a sneeze fest. Almost everybody is either catching a fever or flu now. I fear for my life.

Please find this

This blog, if it has a face, I'm sure it would look like Kate Moss or Audrey Tatou or my mum or whoever you find strikingly beautiful. I'm also a bit creeped out that I can just directly relate to some of the posts. Like this one where it's much needed on my bad days (which seems for eternity):

"You cannot kill me here. Bring your soldiers, your death, your disease, your collapsed economy because it doesn’t matter, I have nothing left to lose and you cannot kill me here. Bring the tears of orphans and the wails of a mother’s loss, bring your God damn air force and Jesus on a cross, bring your hate and bitterness and long working hours, bring your empty wallets and love long since gone but you cannot kill me here. Bring your sneers, your snide remarks and friendships never felt, your letters never sent, your kisses never kissed, cigarettes smoked to the bone and cancer killing fears but you cannot kill me here. For I may fall and I may fail but I will stand again each time and you will find no satisfaction. Because you cannot kill me here."

I think my blog looks like Jennifer Aniston. (Photo via sine qua non)

Autumn story & Blu

I seem to have a growing collection of stop motion animations over here in this blog for a couple months lately, if you do notice. Which reminds me I should get around to tagging my posts.

Here's another two: a music video for Firekites’ Autumn Story made entirely out of chalk drawings; and a short film by Blu, an ambiguous animation painted on public walls. Absolutely breathtaking. (via NewWork)

Firekites - AUTUMN STORY - chalk animation from Lucinda Schreiber on Vimeo.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Could anyone kindly donate me some Polaroid filmpacks?

It's 'Roid Week 2009 and I am currently running out of my 600 filmpacks, just like the last time. I am so bummed! Dear Polaroid Goddessess, please grant me a never ending supply of 600 films for me until my thumbs are too weak to click on the shutter button anymore. (Polaroids from AV Photography)

Doppelganger

There was a new girl at work whom I became acquainted with while working on the corporate event last Thursday. She reminds me a lot of myself when I was younger – inquisitive, outspoken and perpetually enthusiastic about new things. She asked too many questions sometimes – people find her annoying & gung-ho (according to comments I heard about her). I, on the other hand, found her challenging, if not, intimidating. 

Even Azah The Royal Queen of Fussiness has little girl crush on her after hearing her emceeing. She asked, ‘Where did you find her?” I was about to say we passed by 7-Eleven and she flashed her thighs at us but that wouldn’t be appropriate and that would be a lie anyway so I said, “Oh she was just lying around so I took her in.” which is technically still a lie. Wait, am I still your favorite little sister, Azah?

Anyway, I’m still inquisitive though, stepping up one notch to become a pain in the neck though. I know things that it’s OK for me not to know and goes around informing people about them. Like the time I told my Project Director about Murphy’s Law when my video montage refused to play during the rehearsal or lecturing a friend about the difference between wasabi & wabi -sabi. 

Oh well. (Photo from sine qua non)