Also today

... I resolve to learn new things, to absorb as much as I can. One of them is 'performance photography' - coined by It's Nice That, referring to a series of outstanding photography by Raven Smith.

I seriously need a vacation methinks.

Today

... I'd like to speak in visuals, since for the past few days I had been speaking in numbers. (Photo via swissmiss)

I worry my pretty little head over everything

... but I love the advice my parents gave me, after all these years. (Photo from ache)

Sorry I'm late

Sorry I'm Late from Tomas Mankovsky on Vimeo.

Tomas Mankovsky made this stop motion with a still camera in the ceiling pointing straight at the floor, and lots of patience, obviously. Check out it's Making Of. (via Blogilvy)

A breakfast & a think

I, like many others, are grateful for the invention of the Internet for it enables us to be fed with endless information & entertainment all throughout our days. Many types of researches, which in former days were done in dusty libraries engulfed in a musky scent of yellowed papers (not that I mind, I love libraries) can now be done at home at the tip of our fingers while piggybacking on neighbor’s wifi connection. We read reviews of movies & books way before we go to watch or buy them. We consult online forums for products before we zoom off to the store to purchase them. And for some, they even post life problems on Yahoo! Answers for a bunch of strangers to mock resolve.

In some ways Internet got us planning ahead for things. Not that it was bad or something. But lately I had been thinking about pursuing risks. In principle, our practice of Internet usage does not wholly allow such things. Whatever happens to pack your bags & just drive off without consulting Google maps? Buying books based on covers & synopsis at the back? Going to watch movies just because the typography on the poster caught your attention? Trying out new types of dish?

You know, just something I thought over breakfast this morning.

Being lazy by doing too much?

Sogyal Rinpoche, world-renowned Tibetan Buddhist teacher, also the author of the highly acclaimed The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying says:

“There are different species of laziness: Eastern and Western. The Eastern style is like the one practised in India. It consists of hanging out all day in the sun, doing nothing, avoiding any kind of work or useful activity, drinking cups of tea, listening to Hindi film music blaring on the radio, and gossiping with friends. Western laziness is quite different. It consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so there is no time at all to confront the real issues. This form of laziness lies in our failure to choose worthwhile applications for our energy.” (via swissmiss, photo via sine qua non)

Speaking of which, we are going to embrace Eastern style of laziness by going kite-flying at Kepong Metropolitan Park tomorrow!

Worth thinking about for four seconds

I know I haven't been posting much these days, and when I do it's often heaps of moany updates of what I have been doing over my hiatus. Anyway, I came across this question from magicmolly's tumblr and it did get me thinking: Did we spend our entire adolescence calculating social risks? And if so, where did this leave us?

I don't know, here? Sigh. I promise I'll be back & running with more passionate topics soon. I hope. (Photo credit unknown, let me know if you do. Thanks.) In the meantime, do feast your eyes with these visually breathtaking videos:

faltjahr 2010 from yohann on Vimeo.

let yourself feel. from Esteban Diácono on Vimeo.

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Asteroids - A love story from Nigel Upchurch on Vimeo.

Good morning happiness

Yesterday on the way to work, our car stopped to a halt behind a teal Nissan Sylphy bearing a bumper sticker which said, "Honk if you are horny." Almost Pavlovian, Azry honked a million times, attracting looks from other motorists, of whom I was sure were every bit of suspicious that the honks were directed towards them. And with that little spontaneous gesture coming from this burly guy I married, my work-related sorrows was instantly blown away with the polluted morning breeze along the Damansara-Puchong highway. (Photo from Robert Mars)

Earth sucks

... so let's get packing & move to Europa! (Photo from Waxin' & Milkin')

Gargantuan meals, elevated spirit & an accidental study of public perception

My weekends were superb. I had a rough week before that, so I vowed to utilize my weekends just as fun-filled as possible, much to Azry’s dismay whose idea of a great weekends is solely defined by endless sleep hours. In an order to bribe him, I took him to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and just as soon as the title sequence opened saying along the lines of, “Have you ever felt that you were a little different? That you were born to contribute to the society?” I knew this number has got to be something. Ultimately, I turned out right as funny gags were thrown all over the timeline we could hardly sit still. We would definitely watch it again.

Sunday started out early for me (but not for Azry, he woke up at 2pm). It has been months since the last time I met Shaza of Stampede to talk about business, our furry friends and comparing lives between Langkawi & Kuala Lumpur. I’ve always adored her, having Googled her for the first time and found the first result linking to her old interview with mcville.net. Thanks to her, the night after that Azry slept with his ears smothered in pillows because I kept going, “I wanna wanna wanna wanna go to Langkawi!”

She also happened to share my sentiment frustration of being judged & generalized based on our appearances (mostly because we are hijabi)- instantly ignored or given looks at while entering some boutiques, and was quickly assumed of being monolingual (the language in reference here is Bahasa Malaysia – our native language). Which quickly brings to my last self-challenge - little did I know that it had turned into an ongoing study of public perception. As soon I donned on a pair of baju kurung & walked into MOST stores, I could sense people were assuming, “Oh never mind, she would not be able to afford this, she would just walk out like that, so there is no need to shout ‘Welcome’ to her just as much as we did to everyone else who speaks the same language as we do.” Until we bought a MYR300 worth of purchase, those roustabouts furiously thanked & bowed at us in appreciation.

Also retailers, apart from the above paragraph do take note that courtesy does result in sales, and in some ways, big bucks. I said this because on the same occasion after being discriminated in small gift shop (refer to the paragraph above) we walked casually into an Apple store not preparing to buy anything and was greeted nicely by this shop attendant we called B (not Blair Waldorf dammit) and he sweet-talked us until in less than an hour I found myself toting home a nice sleek 13” Macbook Pro. Hah.

And yes, I do notice that due to my hectic schedule now, I tend to do weekend reportages in a wall of text only the chosen ones would read. Until then.

Xoxo, Angry Girl. (Photo from Herd)

On a random note

If there were one word to describe me exactly, I would say it has to be ‘random’. I could dress up one day & turn up at the office dressing like a hippie the next. There are days I would just want to curl in bed and sleep all day, but there would be those where I’d like to scour the city looking for God knows what (Azry knows this quite well, which is why he often leaves all the weekends decisions to me).

When times get rough, I tend to amuse myself by setting up a self-challenge. This week I challenged myself to put on baju kurung every day for the whole week, including the weekends. It’s Friday today, so far it is going quite well. Also I decided to celebrate the little things in life, because I choose to believe now matter how apeshit your days go, there will be something to raise glasses to.

At the end of the day, I told Azry, “I’m Sigourney Weaver stuck in a slithery alien cocoon-like tummy blasting my machine guns to get the hell out. In the meantime, these simple pleasures are the only thing that kept me alive.” To which he asked, “Why don’t you just tickle the inside of the alien belly?” I smiled. He let out a chuckle, feeling victorious being able to receive a positive reaction from me.

We are so made to be together. (Photo from Bloom, Grow, Love)

So this is loveARGHKKFGH (please sing in the voices of Fred Durst, Chino Moreno & Jonathan Davis)

In case you haven’t noticed, I was quite miserable when Polaroid Corporation announced that it will discontinue production of all instant film on February 8, 2008. Polaroid photographers all around the world did their bit by urging Polaroid (and Fujifilm) to continue producing instant film & cameras, but alas. Later, Tod Brilliant & friends launched a global website on the Save Project movement, a site described as “not about saving Polaroid, the company, rather the remarkable invention of Edwin Land, the instant film that made Polaroid a household name”. I remember receiving an online petition that went through chains of emails, but nothing happened much and we were about to lose hope. Until today. (wipes tears of joy streaming down my cheeks)

And also in case you are puzzled by the title, do download this mp3 to find out what I’m talking about.

Just me & my dad

I love this. Because I am just as much as a Daddy's little girl, and we both love cameras & love taking pictures.

Our near-impossible open house mission

After much arm twisting (in a good, tender way mind you) Azry finally managed to get my approval to hold an Eid open house day for our friends last Saturday. My parents heard about what was going to happen & Mum panicked about the possibility of me burning the kitchen so they drove all the 300 km way from Kedah to help us. My girl friends were way prepared by saving the emergency numbers for the fire engine & the ambulance in the speed dial.

Despite all the hullabaloo I disappointed everybody by having a (kind of) smooth event perhaps except for miscommunication of the map leaving some of the guests getting lost in the way & some, I’m sorry, one of them left stranded by the roadside and nearly cried (yes I’m looking at you Delaila).

These fellas were not able to make it since the two in front detected a last minute presence of the Milennium Falcon in their area & the furry guy at the back choked on a wine glass last night. Photo from FUN.

All in all, in the midst of the mountains of dirty dishes I can say the event went actually quite well and I could not wait to have it again (in another 10++ years). Thank you for those coming, and please come again! Although I’d fully understand if you won’t come again, it’s totally your choice to begin with. Erm, OK.

A hat tip to awesomeness

Now whoever said the cyberspace is full of bad people probably didn’t look deeper enough, because contrary to popular beliefs it’s actually full of awesome people. In my case, it all started with a little bloghopping where I found out about Along’s and fell in love with her honest writings and then her friend Wani Ardy came up & proclaimed herself as a fan of mine (which is weird because she IS the singer/songwriter/freestyle poet) and then came up Syafiq who is, ah, erm, Wani’s friend who professed a certain fondness towards harajuku fashion sense who could not wait to go home so he could try on the pink wig and the ridiculously colored striped stockings.

Here’s to a wonderful friendship blossomed over the cyberspace.

“You believe in love?” “It’s love, not Santa Claus.”

Things I learned from the movie (500) Days of Summer: We can’t be too sure about a lot of things. Have backup plans. “Just because she likes the same bizarro crap that you do, does not mean she’s your soulmate.” Don’t believe in love at first sight (unless you beg to differ, because Azry said he was he had found The One the moment he saw me when we were 13). ‘Penis’ is an offensive word in Malaysian cinemas but ‘bitch’ & ‘cunt’ are acceptable. Go with the flow. How sex can be such an overwhelming achievement it’s so funny. Tommy (as I’ve known him 3rd Rock from The Sun) is all grown up now. Roleplaying in IKEA is fun. Having a chalkboard as your wall is also fun. DON’T spill everything out to your friends, keep something to yourself. Look for the signs. Every little thing counts. Dress in outfit that makes you feel good about yourself. Pursue your dreams (ZANA HAVE A LISTEN TO THAT!).

And, as if nobody had ever noticed, that Zooey Deschanel has the loveliest eyes ever.

"Visionaries wear binoculars instead of contact lenses." says John Maeda.

Well yours truly had been on a serious linkages spree today, and as always, discovered some pretty pleasant stuffs along the way. Did you know Ken Leung, former art director of Monocle originates from Malaysia? Which are the world’s top design schools? What makes a dissident stand out after being knocked down again & again? Are Muslim women really that oppressed as to what many believe so? What did Jason Mraz find out about kids and the ocean? Would you like to hear a tale of 3-warp speed architecture, whatever that is ? (Please have a listen it's actually very enlightening) In what ways our beloved country has achieved international infamy?

And here’s a useful wheel in case you get stuck in the midst of a writer’s block. (Photo of Domus Academy, Milan – one of those I had my eye on.)

The story of a beautiful failure

In January 2009 Information Architects (iA) were invited to take part in a paid pitch for the print redesign for the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. All in all five agencies took part in the pitch, & iA was the only web oriented agency. They did not make it, however it is a story of a beautiful failure.

On another note, we always knew at the back of our minds that working hard is overrated, but had no facts to back it up (n'est-ce pas my compadre Azah?). So here’s one:

Much more important than working hard is knowing how to find the right thing to work on. Paying attention to what is going on in the world. Seeing patterns. Seeing things as they are rather than how you want them to be. Being able to read what people want. Putting yourself in the right place where information is flowing freely and interesting new juxtapositions can be seen. But you can save yourself a lot of time by working on the right thing. Working hard, even, if that’s what you like to do.

Both linkages thanks to the ever-wonderful swissmiss.