Another year gone...

Meet McSpicy and Curry Chicken Mee Soto!

They're Glo's and my Christmas presents from Fransy. FINGAR PUPPETS. :D
McSpicy the Scary Dragon's mine. 8D

Hello blogosphere! Did you have a nice Christmas?
I did! :D
The loves and I explored Henderson Bridge. We braved the rain, the wind, and two monkeys :)

Dory and her holga.

And I brought my YASHYASH out. :D

I love this photo (she's gonna kill me).

mmm, a well spent christmas eve. :)

And then came the FAMILY CONCERT.
I didn't play the violin this time. Emceed and played the Cajón.
Charmaine brought the house down, yo!
She's probably the most fantastic singer I've ever met. :D

So 2008 is coming to an end, and they're going to add an additional second to the last moment (to coincide with the position of the Earth or something, don't ask me, I'm not a scientist).

2008 is just...the usual.

No... WAIT. My hair is less sucky.

SEE! I have half-mastered the art of flicking the hair disdainfully at people I don't like.

This is so exciting. :D *twirls hair in fingers*
Longest hair I've ever had. :D

Okay, so maybe 2008 isn't as bad as I've thought.

Just look at all these wonderful people.
Who am I to complain that 2008 sucked?

2008 was good.
Bring it on, 2009.

13 Jours En France

Motion Blur.

There are just days when I can't seem to comprehend my own mind.
My mind has a will of its own; my heart doesn't listen.

I don't know who I am anymore.

Today, my left hand got into an ugly verbal battle with my right.
She (right hand) has scarred him (the left hand) for life.

If hands could suffer from low self esteem, my left hand would have decapitated himself.

It's okay if you don't understand.
Neither do I.

For now, I'll attribute everything to the lack of sleep.
This imaginary pile of mess better sort itself out soon.

This Is the First Day Of My Life

I hate embarrassing days. :(
Looked around for a hole to hide in but couldn't. It's just one of those days when I wished I could just magically disappear.

Oh well, the day's over. Time to channel some positive energy! :)
Christmas is in the air! It's another year! Time to spread the love and watch this lovely video.

It's "This Is The First Day of My Life" by Bright Eyes.

Possibly the sweetest song (and video), ever. :3

The Picture of Dorian Gray

It's been a while since I've last attempted to read a classic.
So here it goes: homoeroticism, old, gothic horror, and intricately weaved language.
Definitely not something that can be read along with the sounds of a post-punk revival band. Killers lah. And no, I haven't gotten their new album. :(

Absolutely brilliant, time to put my disgustingly short attention span to test...

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

And the sloth awakens...

It's been close to a month since the last update.
We're into week 12 of zeh mighty attachment!
YES, only 8 weeks to go!
People get ready, we're gonna partaye like madness when it's over. :D

Nothing much happened (either that or I've knocked my head too hard to remember).

Have been thinking about our very bleak futures for the past few weeks, and over the course of the (very, very) mind shattering, pensive period, I've narrowed down to a few career choices which didn't survive my own paranoia.

army officer.
educator.
I aspire to strike fear in hearts. 8D

This is so frustrating. Only 8 weeks left to decide what we want to do with the rest of our lives.

Too bad Heifetz's dead. Or I'd want to marry him and live happily ever after.

"Mr Heifetz, will you marry me?"

Madness,
probably why I don't blog anymore.

:D

BALDERDASH!

I just love the feeling of having the sudden urge to yell out "BALDERDASH!".

Oh well, it's probably because I've been procrastinating way too much to come up with a decent blog entry, and reading the other mass commers' blogs just made me feel as if I'm not communicating enough. (You know, being a mass commer and all.)

Oh screw it, BALDERDASH!
(Yes, I know it's starting to sound like some wacky Harry Potter spell, and saying it thrice is overuse and nobody's going to continue reading if I say it again.)

We're finally into our 7th week of the mighty Industrial Attachment Programme.

I can't say that I'm elated , or overjoyed. These words are much too happy.
I'm just happy at my little corner, with a table large enough for me to hide under (I'm still considering my options - to hide under the table or in the washroom).

I've only three words for my seemingly awkward life now: Working Life Sucks.

Why 'awkward'?
My sense of humor (or the lack of it, as it appears) has gone unappreciated for 7 weeks.

*bawls*

Just ignore me at work. I'll entertain myself with Microsoft Word.

Okay, enough with the "woe is me"s. I've finally completed my first 10km run in an hour and fifteen minutes *preens*.
And in about 20 hours, I'll be watching Tommy Emmanuel LIVE from the best seats! WHOOOOOO!!!!

Great Eastern Women's 10km!

yesssssssssssss. XD

Me and my geetar.

So here I am,
playing The Beatles over and over,
on my third-hand, plywood classical guitar. In the middle of the night.

Well, not exactly middle of the night...

But I'm so happy. :)

Four weeks into attachment,
a dozen or so new faces and names to remember,
a few handful of new additions to the wardrobe,
and a friendship forged with Mr. Refrigerator.

Haven't been updating much, my English is deteriorating at the speed of light (Omg, so clicheish. So disgusted at myself). And I was plain lazy to update (no printjourn-related complaints and news angle for blog posts lah).

Working in an office is so mundane, my hair stands when the thought of doing that for the rest of my life strikes.

Okay, can't think anymore. I'm dead beat.


"Blackbird singing in the dead of night..."

It's all about being there for each other

I'm so glad I found you guys.
The funniest, noisiest, and loveliest girls in my life.

Thanks for being there to show me your support,
for not judging, for not giving up.

For not murdering me for expired birthday presents.

And most of all, for showering love all over me.
(I see jealous men, haha.)

I♥YOUTWO.

Coolness, people.

Good day to all.
Haven't been blogging much these days, I know you all miss the oodles of uplifting...uh.. words of wisdom on i-hate-butterflies.

Dang.

Okay, I'm still very cool, and so is Bach.

"A very cool Bach"

Except that he's living in a wooden box on the other side of the Earth, while I live out my very boring life as an intern.

It's already Sunday.
There goes my weekend.

One week down, nineteen to go.

YASHYASH!

It all began with a couple of really nice shots that I've came across on Flickr.


And then I embarked on a not-so-long hunt for a TLR camera.
So much for impulse buys, I found a Yashica 635 (from probably the 1950s?) and bought it for 40 bucks from some online seller.
Was so excited with the new buy that I decided to spend another 280 bucks to restore it.

Sigh, there goes the money meant for my (erm, third..) guitar :(

Am now broke, and will be living off biscuits for the next couple of months before my pay comes in.

"Strings, attached!"

I can't think of any words for the past week.

My grandmother has left us for a better place, and I miss her already. Funny how we only miss people when they're gone.
She chose to leave a day before the concert. For the moment, I was at a loss of what to do.

I cried.


Then came the day we've all been working for.
Eleven hours of last minute practices every single day in a week. Throw in a couple of hours of hectic shopping a few days before.
Two hours of concert. Six-minute worth of screw ups.

A lifetime of friendship.

I can't imagine life without NP Strings.
Thanks for being there. :)

Right now, I am happy.

Because I know somewhere out there, a bunch of people are willing to show lend their support, share secrets, and have a jolly good time at the beach.

To Strings,
Thank you for being my pillar of strength. ♥

Episode 18 Part 2

Happy birthday DORY! (Okay, happy belated birthday. heh)
We celebrated Dory's 18 part 2, simply because 19 is a prime number and we all hate prime numbers. :)

This is DORY, one of the best things that have happened to me in life.
We've known each other for five years, but we've never been in the same class, ever. It's amazing how you meet people in all the funny situations life put you through.

So after a lovely dinner with the nicest bunch of strangers (ever friendly strings people, thank you for your presence), and after she laughed at my impeccable command of mandarin, the both of us took a lovely walk down to the usual bus stop.

Nothing much happened along the way, we passed the usual roadsigns, same shops for the S to the XXXXXXXXXXXXL sized, the occasional UFO sightings... But those aren't important. What's important was that I had an epiphany, and DORY caused it.

I'm going to un-hate the two people I've ever come close to hating.
[insert the 'nobody is born horrible' lecture, which I will ( at some point in time), get down to writing]
"Be nice, VALERIE. Be nice."
Gotta be nice. It's sort of like a birthday resolution for myself, except that I borrowed DORY's birthday for it. :P

Okay, don't make much sense here. My brain's all gunked up thanks to the many, many hours of intense practising and a hell lot more hours shopping for dresses and shoes while lugging a stupid violin case - I swear it weighs like 7 elephants - around town.

Grah.

LLIN: YOU OWE DORY A BIRTHDAY DATE.

"It was just another Sunday..."

It wasn't just another Sunday. It was the day I lugged a lousy SLR with lousier film around Singapore to shoot some newsworthy photos.
The photos are just so blah.
And to top it all off, I have a 300-word essay on the lives of foreign workers in Singapore to hand in nine hours later together with the un-happening photo.

grah.

On the sidenote, mmmm.. the live qc-show. The ultimate distraction.
brill, this is just what I need now. :)

But since you said goodbye, the polka-dots filled my eyes, but I don't know why.

It's the 500th post today, wanted to wait till the release of the pitch results but I guess it's gonna take a couple of centuries.
Life's been peachy. I slept for 22 hours the day after the pitch, and have been on my guitar and violin ever since :)

shoop, shoop, shoop delang, delang! :)

27 Days to Freedom.

Advert pitch in 36 hours (around there, can't be bothered to do the math). We are NOT going to screw up.
NOT GOING TO SCREW UP, YOU HEAR ME?

I'm exhausted, irritated, and pissed- no, feeling murderous.
The past few days were sucky. No time for sleep or anything else. Just the endless pile of work to complete and the constant morbid thoughts hoarding my brain.

I am sorting out this mess, but it's not going to work if it's just the few of us doing it.

I will murder people if we screw this up.

mmm, cereal.

Virtuoso XV
30th August 2008, 7.30pm
DBS Auditorium

Tickets are at $10 each.

Saturdaye with Huiyun and Jiaxue :)

It's been centuries since I last stepped into a neoprint machine.
And all of a sudden, everything's like whoa on the inside.

I'm holding my head to keep it from blowing up.

Hello world.
My head hurts, my body feels like its been trampled on by a hippopotamus. My brain can hardly function anymore.
If you think your life sucks, try mine.

<3

Trigger happy

Okay I am so addicted to the DSLR.
I will post the photos up after Monday, got to make all our "sneaking around" business worth the while. :)

Okay, maybe not...
I just couldn't resist. XD
Taken at the Museum of Shanghai Toys where Sheereen did her article. This is one heckuva toy piano.
And this was found in a 1971 Marvel comic. Winning as much as $6.00 every week seemed like a huge thing back in the past. Who knows what we'll stand to win in the future, a billion bucks?

Ry and I were busy people today. We travelled all across the mighty land of Singapore all in the name of Photojourn.

Assignment photos will be posted after we hand it in. Right now, you'll have to kill me to show them to you.

But you don't have to kill me to show this to you.
My sister rockz0rz.
Not my lousy hair and messy bed.

I'm working on my asdfghjkl; articles right now, and then shall attempt to clear a pico-inch of the other assignments. Big day tomorrow today!

妈咪，生日快乐！我爱爱爱爱爱爱爱爱爱你！
<3

Okay, I know you guys (or rather, Chintow) like the pyahno photo as much as I do. You can grab it, but please credit it. My back ached the entire night after attempting all the weird yoga positions to get these shots (I stood on a chair to take that!).

Photography is good exercise. :D

If I were to choose to kill someone

I'd know who it'd be.
It'd be you, asswipe.

Fwoah. First angsty post in a million years. Go buy beh bio now, please.

I might want to invest in a DSLR now.

For my soft toys...

For the camera shy...

And for the retarded...

:)

Erratic Clockwork

My body clock's screwed.
Thank you, school.

翼〜You are the HERO

I'll never get sick of watching this. :)

One down, half a million to go.

I am brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant, at this strange, strange hour.

"Yet despite the fact that the content weighs like the amount of junk on Pulau Semakau, the music of [insert album name here] becomes lifesaver, as its groovy beats of [insert band name here]'s fame will make it seem like Whisper Ultra."

And yours truly clicked "send". It is now sitting blissfully in the editor's inbox.

Suicide is not as difficult as I thought it would be.

THIS IS INCOHERENCE AT ITS PEAK, YO.

Epitome of Awesomeness

Tommy Emmanuel rocks it out with Ukulele Legend, Jake Shimabukuro.

This is probably the best 2:51 minutes of my life.

And introducing the new addition to my instrument family...


A Ukulele.


Yes. I Got Myself A Ukulele. :D

Happy Birthday, Garfield.

I've just spent the first hour of the birthday sorting out important emails and panicking over them. This is worse than any other normal job. Some great birthday. :(
Okay Valerie, think happy thoughts...
Thank you all for your birthday wishes! If you're reading this now and you haven't wished me yet, TIME TO PICK UP YOUR PHONE! HAHAHHAHA XD
(it's my birthday today, so let me be boss for the day lah!)

Thank you girls for the beautiful watch :D
[space for photo when I have it]

And of course, my wonderful sister for the Timex. I LOVE YOU! *hugs*

And Frans, for lunch/ dinner. :D

Annabel the silly girl sent me her love via post today :)

Yeah I know you love my bedsheet. :)

I Kissed Dating Goodbye shows what it means to entrust your life to God. Joshua Harris shares his story of giving up dating and discovering that God has something even better - a life of sincere love, true purity, and purposeful singleness.

- Back cover of book

This is going to be so interesting. :D
Thanks, bel! :)

Have a jolly good Thursday!

"Ukuleles and Foul Language"

What I want for my nineteenth.

YEAH, FEED MY WANTS!

1. Someone to ace printjourn for me.
2. A year's supply of yummylicious pineapple tarts.
3. A weight loss programme for Number 2.

Lin and I have made an amazing discovery.

val: I have more pictures of you alone in my computer than myself.
lin: And me, you.

Shit. She's going to start blackmailing me with all the super unglam photos.

Take care in Korea. Don't fall down and buy me jaejeongmeong! and kimchi! or whatever foodstuff you think I will eat. :3

Wo yao braces.

But wo mei you qian.



D:

slut slide guitar

It's been a while since I've done these things, but oh well. Thanks Sherry :D

1) How long will you wait for someone you love?
5 years. Ouch, bad memories D: (and it's not even love)

2) What do you hope for now?
End of 3.1

3) What is the last thing you say/do if tomorrow is the end of world?
Steal something I like, find a husband, fly to Hawaii.

4) Do you hate your friends sometimes?
What?! Never. Unless they ditch me on my birthday and fly to Korea.

5) What will you do if your bestfriend has been kidnapped?
Save her from the deathly hallows. Except I don't have enough money to fly to Korea.

6) Do you believe in seeing a rainbow after the rain.
Hell yes. I even believe in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Except that someone else always gets to it before I do.

7) what are you listening now?
The weird humming sound my laptop is making.

8) What your desired age of marriage?
I don't believe in marriage, yet.

9 ) Are you happy with your life now?
WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING?! *points at uncompleted assignments and pulls hair out*

10) What if your crush ask you out?
Which one? =x

11) What will you do when you have crush that knows you have a crush on him/her?
Nothing.

12) What feeling do you hate the most?
When I know I have tons of work waiting for me to complete.

13) What will you do if you fall in love with a guy/girl?
Thank God. It's better than falling in love with an iguana or something.

14) What are you looking forward in the upcoming weeks?
END OF 3.1

15) The most important things in your life?
Muh family. <3

16) Who do you hope to always be there for you?
Muh family and the girls. (Yes, I love you all even if you ditch me on my birthday to fly to Korea and Vietnam)

17) Do you find life meaningless?
Only when I've got deadlines to meet.

18) Where do you think you can find true love?
At Poh Kim, home of all cheesy K,J, and T dramas. Or mysoju/crunchyroll, when I'm strapped of cash.

19) Do you believe that there is 'True love'?
I'll come back to this question when I get married.

20) What's your greatest wish?
Fire + School.

21)What will you change when you can turn back time?
*coughelectivescough*

Oh yeah, I've got to tag some random people too.
1) Korea-bound girl
2) Vietnam-bound girl
3) Dory
4) Mok
5) Mel
6) Ry

Purest form of Art

I feel very accomplished today.
(No, I haven't touched my articles for three days - shit.)
I bought 4 CDs for 10 bucks! And they're not even pirated! 8D

I've been practising guitar like mad lately. Thanks to the few uncles who showed me the way. My appetite for good music has travelled a few decades back. :D

Buy me a Gibson Hummingbird for my birthday!

It's only S$4k+.
:D

What common tests?

Four out of Five Dentists Recommend Valerie.

Enter a word for your own slogan:

Generated by the Advertising Slogan Generator. Get more valerie slogans.

mmm hmmm, tasty :D

While the rest of the world is busy regurgitating information for common tests, I'm slaving my days away on a dying laptop with a throbbing brain. (Think pink, gooey mess stuck to the walls of my skull after all the articles, factsheets, and a little bit of mad running around the school track.)

Panadol is expensive. 20 cents for two tablets.
I so need a punching intern now. :(

We reek of horse pee on Mondays.

I spent 4 hours printing 6 prints of our dearest Ry in the darkroom.
Photojourn is smelly business. Thank goodness they've replaced the stopbath with some other chemicals (with a shitload of ammonia) instead of using the good old horse pee like in the olden days.

Alrighty, updates!

Covered the graduation ceremonies for Tribune.

Fransy graduates...

Sam graduates...

annabel :D

And the rest of the people graduated. (nudge me for more photos)

CONGRATULATIONS,PEOPLE! :D

Better come back and don't disappear after NS. lol.

Met up with Cailing, Lecia and Chintow for dinnah on Friday...

I have a handful of Chintow's unglam pics. :D

And my darlings on Saturday. <3

ilu2 <3

Here's a sign of life!

Goodnight world. :)

I love photobooth

School does this to you.

Hurray, my laptop is finally sent for servicing. They gave me a Macbook in place of my trashy iBook. The only good thing about this is photobooth- yay funny faces :D
It is so laggy it makes Gramma Slug feel like Flash.
And worse still, Microsoft Word is entirely in Spanish.

God save me.

Go! DORCAMON! I CHOOSE YOU!

How very sardonic.
You're the cutest, I swear.



Okay, maybe the second cutest, next to my wonderful crushie.

I can't be half assed.

I am officially sick and tired of complaining about how school sucks.
Damn you, responsibility.
I hate the stuff we learn, because once you put your knowledge into practice, there is no way I can say "SCREW YOU, [insert title here]" without worrying about defamation lawsuits.

Week 6 is upon us.
Welcome to hell.

If I could be who you wanted

Impromptu meetup with cailing and christine on Fridaye was oohlalalove.

My laptop has officially died on me, and I now have the perfect excuse to procrastinate.
Kernal panic lovin', yo. :D

Fwah.

Just in case you think I've crumbled on the floor, I'm still alive.
Barely, but yeah, alive.

Staying alive!
Staying alive!
Ahhhh, Ahhhhh, Ahhhhh, Yeah!

Lol

The little things we wished for.

I've never wanted to turn back time so badly, ever.
What was I thinking about when I chose printjourn?
One month into school, all the assignments are coming in at full blow. I had to take time off my job, and I doubt I'll be able to get any sleep tonight.
Unofficial last day at work now. The only time I'll get to blog.
Dang, I swear I don't even have to time to cry about it.

*melts*

Krzysztof Rucinski plays Weiniawski's Caprice No. 7 Op. 10 "La Cadenza"


2.5 hours of waiting time at the doctor's, 5 minutes worth of consultation, $10.50.
Of which $8.70 went to the consultation fee.
I am seriously considering a change in my future career.

*Doctor picks up stethoscope
Doc: Alright, I need you to breathe in.
*Struggles to breathe in through my already blocked nose
Doc: I can't hear anything. Breathe harder.
*Breathes harder
Doc: Again, harder!
*Almost kills myself
Doc: Open your mouth
*Opens mouth
Doc: There, I can finally hear you.

I gave my free stress ball to my lecturer.

And now I can't take it back. D:
Printjourn is hell.
No, it's hell two times over.
*stabs myself*

HELLO WORLD

I HAVE A NEW EYECANDY!
There is, after all, hope in my life.

Angel

1 down, 18 to go.

Week one is officially over.
Now we're all very much traumatised and pessimistic, thank you very much.

School is no fun when you already know who's gonna bag the best grades on Day 1.
So much for the "I'm gonna give my best and hope to score this sem", because the standard has skyrocketed.

Why bother?

3.1 is so demoralising.

Hola, senior year.

Year 3 begins in less than ten hours.
I am so not looking forward to it.

In the meantime my trusty schoolbag has been equipped with all the stuff that I need for the first day.
Yeah, stuff meaning cables, power adapters, camera dock, and more cables.

I already feel like one of those old technicians in blue overalls you see in those ancient soap operas. Those (men, for your information) who end up having affairs with the lonely female protagonists (old, rich taitais).

Picture this:
1 Rugged, good looking 40-ish year old technician in his techy getup
think blue overalls, yellow helmet, yummy looking work boots (no, not the PCK kind. the black ones with laces)

1 Unbelievably gorgeous wife of a billionaire, deprived of love and companionship (lets just assume the husband is away on a business trip for a couple of errr... years?)

Lonely, attractive woman (LAW): Oh no! Facebook is not responding! GRAHHHH!! *hyperventilates* IMGONNADIEEEE......

LAW hysterically reaches for the phone directory and dials the local tech shop)

LAW: AHHHHHHH HELP!!! I CAN'T LOAD FACEBOOK!!

Bored phone operator: Ok, hang on ma'am, the repair guy will be on his way

-minutes later (yeah, there was no need to ask for an address, because the Unbelievably cute and sexy computer guy (UCSCG) is actually Superman in disguise. And Superman never needs an address because nothing matters more to him than a distressed damsel in an 'I-can't-access-Facebook' situation.)

UCSCG knocks on the door, and was greeted by the most attractive woman he has ever laid his eyes on, LAW.

UCSCG: Never fear, my fair lady, for I have come to save your world from eternal despair.

UCSCG begins to pull out the many different cables from his trusty work pack. (Let's just assume that you'll need that many cables to get Facebook back on track)

- Hours later -

UCSCG:...and voila! It's fixed!

LAW's eyes glistens with tears

LAW: Oh UCSCG! You saved my life, and for that I am eternally grateful!

*Dramatic lovey-dovey/heroic kind of music spills in*

LAW falls into UCSCG strong (and hairy) arms. Their love for each other has reached to the extent that even I, cannot describe with words (or even html).

*Music continues while the screen fades to black*

Where was I... oh, my back-to-school kit.
Yeah, I can't believe I feel like a UCSCG, darn those stupid cables.
Trust me, we'd have to explain to our kids what 'books' and 'paper' are in the future.

All of a sudden the future seems so bleak.

Sigh, first day of school...
Wish me luck!

@fashionbar the other day.

I need to get back to running. 10km race, soon! :)

Eh, multi gadget sia!

Me play me badass-looking bass, complete with the goofy grin! XD