My Urban Outfit

How this outfit epitomizes current HK fashion:

-tunic/short dress/skirt

-plaid

-black tights or skinny pants

-dark motorcycle-type boots

-long sweater

I'm the opposite of trendy but this trend is irresistible if one has the right clothes and the will--which I find most challenging with how cold HK apartments are in the morning. You know, like, I just rolled out of my duvet and it's too cold to think about fashion. Dress arrived this week from Urban Outfitters via Tim from LA. Sweater from Uniqlo. Age-old tights. No-name boots from Japan. New bargain Baby-G from Amazon.

took this last night

Ah, Facebook.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/08/the-funniest-facebook-sna_n_383847.html

Heart this

I sort of realized recently that I haven't blogged about books in a while. In the past 6 months or so, everything I've picked up has been put down quickly, never to be opened again. Except Blockbuster. I love this non-fic book and recommend it to anyone with even a drop of interest in the history of blockbusters, the first official one being Jaws, followed by E.T., Star Wars, Alien, Jurassic Park and the like. Tom Shone is a genius with words and I am jealous.

Breaking News

Ugh. Irrational post here. Two HK restaurants now have 3 Michelin stars (up 1 from last year). Both are in the Four Seasons. Ugh the Four Seasons! I have an irrational dislike. The Four Seasons has a prim and proper snootiness I can't stand. While I'm at it, ugh the Hyatt Group! Snore. You guys are boring.

Yay for Langham Hotels!

Can this get me in trouble?

Oddly embarrassing...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/22/new-aol-logo-aolcom-photo_n_367115.html

Behold, AOL's new branding:

A changing logo. Hmm. "Dynamic" or indecisive or undefined or lazy? Well yes, it would be harder to decide on just one good one than come up with a hundred OK ones.

Ooh. A puff of fuchsia smoke. A neon green scribble. Seemingly haphazard swirl of blue paint. Street art. A pretty GOLDFISH. The "love" sign. Ooh. How hip. Or cliche. They think we are dumb.
The quotes in the article about the new "Aol." letters and punctuation are cringe-worthy, because of course everyone's thinking the same thing: AOL still exists? Well, given that it does, why'd it take THIS long to rebrand (from some form of blue triangle! Yeah.)?

OK, a fashion post

Just love the Love Moschino line

Like this pic of Kowloon skyline. Taken from the rooftop of a cool new boutique hotel on a nasty street - Connaught Road near Western district.

East Asian Games

suck. Try writing a 500-word preview. No. Torture. I think it'll have to be 300 words. OK. A real big picture of Dony and Ami will have to do.

Buzzing about...

Coolest invitation ever. To the opening party of Hullett House. Delivered in a old-time metal mailbox. Inside, invitation and stack of vintage postcards of old Marine Police Headquarters. Best invitation ever. That's saying a lot:

Now on my cubicle partition:

"No, I can't go into a movie that's already started, because I'm anal."

There are four movies I rented as a teenager because my mom told me to. OK. It's totally weird. An early teen should not be watching these movies, really. I only understood one of them.

1. Annie Hall

The two things I remembered for years to come about this movie are the lobster scene and her famous outfit.

2. Moonstruck

I was about 15 at the time. Hmm. "Love don’t make things nice – it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren’t here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die. The storybooks are bullshit."

3. Wallstreet

An ominous sign that I was destined have a worse-than-average understanding of finance and business.

4. Broadcast News

The only one I understood. Another sign of destiny, really! Well I also watched this one when I was older, like 19.

Does Love Have a Time Limit

(or I deserve a little procrastination right now)

So. (500) Days of Summer might be my favorite movie of the year so far. But it’s sort of a tie with Star Trek. I think this movie would mean a lot of different things to different people. Probably the most memorable scene for most people, which is my favorite scene, is the split screen of expectation vs. reality – super realistic. Oh and nice shoutout for origami cranes and those craaazy girls who fold them.

Come Rescue Me

Finally! Got Marie's new album Breathing Underwater. But the first one was so much more to my liking.

The first album was a lot of piano and acoustic guitar. She went pop with this one. Which is fine, I love pop. But it doesn't work with her voice, in my opinion. It overwhelms her voice. Most disappointingly, her awesome youtube original songs were excluded. Wish she'd do a cover album though.

That said, my favorite songs (I think) are, in this order: Overboard, Avalanche, Breathing Underwater

Can't seem to get enough of Overboard. It makes me want to sing, scream, laugh, cry, dance... but mostly sing.

There's a story somewhere in here

There's this local journalist/columnist whom I admire. I've met her once. I've seen her more than once. She writes about her love/sex life a lot. The time I was introduced to her, at a midday work-related event, she was on her third champagne because the boyfriend she just split with was seen coming out of a Soho apartment building on a Saturday morning in last night's suit. Dejected, she got on her phone and informed us she just made a booty call. Sometimes I run into her in those types of situations she writes about. It's surreal. One night last week I saw her at this party. I was on my third champagne. I was being very jovial with my colleague, boss, a PR and our freelance proofreader. Odd combo now that I think about it. We were almost the last to leave. We got in the elevator with her and the guy she'd been talking to whom I think she just met. And I felt like a spy. A voyeur. Being John Malkovich. I watched as she cheek kissed him before he got out of the elevator on his floor. Heard her invite him out somewhere. Suggestively. Coolly. Door closed. Then we all went our separate ways.

Love this

TRASH: anycoloryoulike art intervention for urban beautification and environmental awareness

(Saw this at http://ohjoy.blogs.com/)

Huge display case origami cranes at i.t store.

Funny but unfunny

because true of so many:

http://blog.media.asia/davidtiltman/named-and-shamed-discovery-destroying-the-planet/

US$200 vs. US$8 (or yeah for cheap labor)

Have a wedding to go to tomorrow, a family one. I've noticed that I frequently have a problem in wedding pictures, which is that my hair looks like shit. Instead of making a hair appointment, I decided to get a way-over-the-top headband and that'll make up for everything else. Got a headband but then decided I don't have a dress that goes with an over-the-top headband, because the dress needs to be simple/solid color, so got a dress at H&M that I'm in love with. I was totally inspired by this website/store called ban.do.

Theirs, US$200:
Mine, HK$62 (US$8) from Sheung Wan:
Yeah theirs is nicer but imho not 25 times nicer :)

girl crush

Last weekend I was walking down Granville Road as a detour on my way home with my husband and someone tapped me on the arm. I turn and it's the female General Manager of the most historical hotel in HK (enough hints right). Thing is, she's like my idol. She's awesome. I can wax inspirational about her. She started from the bottom by chance in the US and now she's head honcho of what might be considered the most reputable hotel in the world. And SHE recognised ME, the random journalist who interviewed her once and goes to her events sometimes. And lemme tell ya, she was the most honest person I've ever interviewed. Love her.

Fully taken aback and starstruck, I was like "HI" and eyes wide and all fumbly, and she was like, oh these are my sisters, we're just shopping around, k bye!

I am such a dork, that made my day. I was floating for hours.

It's so easy to make fun of Gwyneth Paltrow's website/blog called goop. I contemplated creating a blog purely for that purpose. She doesn't even have that many "newsletters" or blog entries so the "counterblog" wouldn't even be all that time-consuming.

Well anyway. While I find a lot of the things she writes on there awkward, if not questionable, the recipes she posts look and sound seriously good and, best of all, easy. I finally tried the eggplant parmesan recipe for knockout dad's birthday and it was perfection. Yummy, pretty, vegetarian and not too unhealthy.

Movies

Saw Inglourious Basterds. Loved but... can't help but compare it to Kill Bill, and it makes me love Kill Bill Vol. 2 even more.

On the plane to Hokkaido 2 weeks ago, watched Star Trek again, LOVED again... I just love that movie.

Also watched Duplicity on the way back. It was OK. Actually the ending ruined it. It was like they spent time and effort on the film but got tired by the end. Other than the ending, loved the interaction between Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. Somehow realistic.

Also watched Push on the plane (though couldn't finish it) starring Dakota Fanning which takes place entirely in Hong Kong and was bad to epic proportions, but the cinematography I found beautiful... imdb-ed it and found out the cinematographer also did Lucky Number Slevin. Makes sense.

LOL

http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/blog/busted_racquet/post/OMG-Rafa-Nadal-gets-a-haircut-and-it-looks-a-l?urn=ten,186602

major procrastination blog

Quote of last week...

"i miean technically carnival is mardi gras, halfnaked women, crazy costumes dancing rite? whereas a carnival in hk is like ham tasting in citysuper with a prize of the best ham"

--V.Li via chat

Sigh, ugh, fug

As I had anticipated, the most annoying thing about living near Lan Kwai Fong is totally alive and well... girls in tops-passed-off-as-dresses, so crotch-tastic. I'm so sick of crotches. Sluts in stripper shoes who aren't strippers - fine. Have bad taste. Perpetuate the cheap-ass, stupid, gold-digging, slutty, local HK girl image. I don't care. BUT as the fug girls would say: LOOK INTO PANTS. Ya know why I'm looking at you? It's not cos you're hot and I'm jealous. It's cos you're not wearing pants, in public. It's cos you're fug. Hm a pic should definitely be included in this post. I will look into that.

I really like this week's batch of Post Secrets.

In response to this one:

I say this all the time: the only things I learned from my university education is the answers to a lot of Jeopardy! questions.

I've been waiting...!!!

A year after completely scrapping a 500-page follow-up to “Eat, Pray, Love,” Elizabeth Gilbert’s mega-best-selling spiritual travelogue, she has delivered a new book that Viking will publish in January. Here for NYT article

Brilliant

wtf

Kee Wah Bakery has rolled out an elaborate, captivating ad campaign for its bridal cakes which I am forced to watch in outrage at the MTR station. It features a pretty celebrity (apparently) looking aspirational and pure, since all marriagable females are virgins. She's not-so-subtly wearing white and holding a delicate bouquet no doubt crafted by a disgruntled, punky props person in the dingy backroom. The ad's design is modern and emotional. The man who's in it for a second looks hot.

This is the tagline: "Giving girls a home, that is marriage"

Aw. Sweet. Am I the only one who finds these ads SUPER SEXIST?! Seriously? Where's the uproar? Sigh.

I really hate Nickelback

I'm not above mainstream music. It's what I listen to. But having left the US for well over 1 year now, when listening to radio streaming from Chicago, I still cringe when they play Nickelback. The lyrics, so cliche and horribly unpoetic. Check out this opening line that was just blasted into my ears: "My best friend gave me the best advice / He said each day's a gift and not a given right." Ugh. Deeper thoughts have been uttered in fortune cookies. And the raspy, ANGSTY voice is the same for every song. Like for these opening lines: "Look at this photograph / Every time I do it makes me laugh." Oh readers. The dude actually shouts these lines like he's about to jump off a cliff from the pain. And it pains me to hear it this CRAP NARRATIVE and rhyming of a 13 year old. Why does Nickelback exist? So wrong.

More store display origami. This one is cool. Pearls and Cashmere at New World Centre. Really elaborately set up. It's art. I like.

This is not my best day ever.

On a 2-week free trial at Pure Fitness right now, so been going a lot to get my non-money's worth! Anyways I don't think I'll join but dunno... I thought about joining a pilates studio but I think cost-wise is about the same (meaning, really expensive). Well I love the free trial though. Location-wise it's awesome, exactly halfway btwn my office and home. I love not having to bring anything except shoes, b/c they provide clothes (don't even need shoes if doing yoga/pilates class). I like showering there, in general, can launder my own towels less and not worry about running out of hot water, etc. And steam room, good for detox. Hm I like pilates a lot more but yoga is supposed to be more om, so I guess it depends what I'm going for.

It's no secret that I have a thing for Langham Place Hotel in Mong Kok. It's modern, cool and artsy - and I mean downright dedicated to contemporary Chinese art. It's 5-star. It has a Michelin-starred restaurant. Its spa is fancy schmancy. Its theme colors are baby pink, gray and gold. So cool. It's part of Langham Place, an awesome mall. Langham Place offices have the most interesting and innovative elevator system I've ever seen (yes... elevators are fascinating). Langham Hotels also has an elaborate Press Club that's specifically for buttering up the media with gifts and events, but I am being entirely (somewhat) objective here.

Langham Place's website and press releases are written in their characteristically young and casual style, which I kind of love. And they have also produced my favorite problematic headline in one of their press releases from May touting a new spa treatment for men:
TENSION DESTROYING MASCULINE BLISS AT CHUAN SPA

I was perplexed for about 5 seconds upon reading the above headline. A few thoughts that crossed my mind: There is a problem at Chuan Spa. Sexual tension causing problems? And they are announcing this... why? Destroyed masculinity - sounds dire. Is this about a botched massage? Is this about sexual frustration? This is supposed to be funny, right? Are they addressing a virus that renders men impotent?

Well, a hyphen would make a big difference:
TENSION-DESTROYING MASCULINE BLISS AT CHUAN SPA

(Adding a verb wouldn' t hurt either: Experience Tension-Destroying Masculine Bliss at Chuan Spa)

I'm in love with this... this choir makes me tear. And this is one of my all-time favorite songs. Of course I think the soloist is awesome.

To just simply quote crazysexylife.com: "The P.S. 22 chrous is lead by music teacher Mr. Breinberg, more fondly referred to his students as Mr. B. Mr. B, who arrived at P.S. 22 in 1999, convinced the administration to let him become a full-time music teacher and start a chorus choir at the school in spite of financial cutbacks in the arts. Instead of teaching traditional children’s songs, he had his students singing contemporary adult songs. In addition to “Viva la Vida” by Coldplay, the P.S. 22 chorus have also tackled covers of songs by Tori Amos, Stevie Nicks, Bjork, Journey, and others."

Beyond inspirational.

How I feel about the new apartment

We moved to a new place that's on Glenealy. The only entirely accurate thing I can say about it now is that our apt is a mess of boxed up junk of course and I have no desire to unpack. I had major reservations about moving here because it's right above Lan Kwai Fong and I dunno how I felt about that... you know? Because I can't stand posers and whatnot. And also the apt is smaller. And also no more sea view, just carpark/back alley view. And old building. Well, so far, I'm freaking in love with living here. I walked to work for the first time yesterday and was like, OMG THIS IS SO CLOSE. This morning I walked to work again but cut through LKF, and you know how LKF is so dead quiet in the mornings/daytime? Well, it's just magic. So is Soho, quiet. It's so nice. And today I walked home and cut through Soho and took Wyndham, and it was of course all "happening" with the restaurants and bars all loud and stuff, but I loved it. I felt so part of the darn world. And then I get on Glenealy and it's completely empty again, and in my apt it's totally silent.

9 days

So much to blog about. So what happened was I took a week off and went to Singapore for 2.5 days to Stephen H.'s wedding. Then Viv and I went to Tioman Island, Malaysia, together by boat, ferry and 4WD to do sea turtle conservation for 5 days. Then back to Singapore, then back to HK.

The sea turtle project is not very hardcore conservation. It's definitely half vacation. I can't even properly blog about it because the whole experience was way too rich to sum it up in a few paragraphs. But basically, we got to live on this practically empty, gorgeous beach for cheap, watch the red sunrise every morning right smack in the middle of the ocean, float around, snorkel around scarce small tropical fish, hike this crazy not-easy trail, ride bikes, get eaten alive by an insane variety of bugs, eat the best freaking little village food ever, have blue-ass skies everyday except when it was going all torrential downpour, experience true kitten loyalty, handle a blind 3-year-old turtle, handle a nest's worth of freakin cute baby turtles, meet cool people, learn to use water pumping machinery, overdose on insect repellent via skin absorption, take cold showers, drink mountain water from the tap, and generally be thrown into a totally new, foreign, opposite situation.

This is where the turtle project was, blue skies, palm trees, sand and all:

Luckily, we got to witness the release of baby sea turtles on our last morning:

The cutest kittens alive:

Sunrise:
Thought I'd throw in a pic from Singapore that I love. In this pic, all of us Northwestern peeps (except the table behind us is HKIS) traveled to Singapore for the wedding. I love this pic oh and my new camera (Canon G10!):

Define irony

This totally qualifies as ironic.

I've been dying to go on an overseas media trip for work. I mean, it's my freaking dream. Travel for free! Get paid to write about it! Be wined and dined like a king! Free airfare! TRAVEL FOR FREE! Leave on the jetplane for free! Eat! Sleep! See! FREE!

Finally today, I get an invitation to go to Malaysia in July for 5 days, a trip which my boss WANTS me to go on. But guess what? It overlaps with my vacation next week--to Malaysia.

That's freakin ironic.

Quote of the day

"suen la... this world is ruined by morons"

--Tim, via chat

Next time, please remind me...

not to join a chorus.

I am crazy stressed out from work, moving, upcoming vacation and other things, and chorus is such a time suckage. The performance will be this Sunday. Verdi's Requiem. It is beautiful. It is even more beautiful to perform it (than to just hear it). But the rehearsals are such a killer when doing a full-time job and living in a crazy city.

However, this is by far the most professional chorus I've ever been in (Opera Hong Kong Chorus). It's quite an amazing experience.

Call me crazy

but I find this very cool. Super impractical brooch included.

(Just Cavalli)

Really lame line from the Stylista finale last night:

Joe Zee: "Elle covers are known for their wow factor."

Really? Wow. I never noticed.

I'm dreaming... of a dense sticky greasy choco espresso caramel cake topped with vanilla ice cream at Ocean Grill that I didn't think I'd like but o. m. g. can I have all the sugar I want if I turn vegetarian?

Cavil to Boomer:

"You should stay and have a heart to heart with your creator, standing there. You could ask her why she made you the way you are: self-destructive, hyper-emotional, torn apart by conflicting impulses... tell her how extraordinarily happy this makes you!"

--Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5

More adventures in real estate

Have to move again very soon. A few months ago we walked into a realtor's office (but we were "wun bun" actually) near Soho asking to see Soho apartments. She took us to this AMAZING refurbished "tong lau" right on Peel Street (practically above Brunch Club). I was in love with this place. One unit had rooftop terrace. Another had ground floor terrace. It was a dream. This time around, no such luck. We looked in Central and Sheung Wan on Saturday. Some really promising places but nothing wowed.

Moving a lot actually satisfies my character trait of being extremely fickle and unpredictable. The first time around (over a year ago) my priority was newness/cleanliness, cost, seaview, closet space and convenience, in that order. Yup I got that, so over that; this time around, my priority is oldness (I WANT TO LIVE IN A TONG LAU), urbanness and cost. (Who knows, the third time around I might insist on rural white picket fence.) Our current frontrunner is an old apartment with view of a back alley in Central. One sick pad we visited was a SICK 700 sq ft studio, with rooftop, and 1 block from my office in Sheung Wan, and dirt cheap (er, well, by HK standards, $14,500/mo.), but won't work because it doesn't have walls--not good with a Korben.

Hong Kong International Art Fair

On to a more traditional knockoutgirl post.

The fair known also as ART HK 09 (yeah good job PRs, it is catchier than the full name) opened two weeks ago and lasted four days. It was fun. But looking at my camera phone pictures (I use my phone for no particular reason. I had my regular camera with me. I just felt like it was somehow tradition to use my phone), I noticed something about the pieces I choose to photograph. While the most striking pieces were the many strange or shocking sculptures, I find that I am most interested in keeping visual record of the most traditional - possibly most boring - paintings.

Gotta love Damien Hirst butterflies.

I didn't squash the photo; these two sculptures are actually squashed like if you are watching TV in widescreen when the aspect ratio of the show is the old kind... hate it when that happens.

These are actually deconstructed high heels made to look like insects. They are amazing.

Part of a portrait.

I LOVE this. I don't really know what is going on in this painting but it's something cultural... butterflies flying, feathered mask, photo-realism with the surreal...

Detail of a nude.

I thought this was just a giant butterfly done with loads of paint and two canvases slapped together and pulled apart, but I only realized from the photo that it is also a person's face! Wa!

I accidentally started reading a forum thread that was talking about people's poor health and evil pharmaceuticals (on Amazon. Why do retail websites host non-product-related forums? So distracting. You don't need to be everything to everybody.). One person commented that air conditioning is partially to blame for people's staying indoors watching TV and not getting exercise or spending time with other human beings, whereas without the A/C, people are much more inclined to get out of the hot house in the summer.

I agree completely that lack of A/C forces people to go outside and possibly exercise! When my husband and I were living in a particular apartment in Evanston, we didn't have air conditioning for about 1 year, and Chicago summers are hot. That summer I voluntarily (meaning no whining involved) went to play tennis everyday because I was sweating profusely just sitting at the computer. It was really disgusting, just dripping with sweat not doing anything, and I preferred to sweat on purpose under the sun while moving, wearing athleticwear, and trying to beat someone at a game, with the possibility of feeling a breeze every once in a while.

Ah. Evanston which teeters between upscale college town and suburban ghetto, how oddly conflicting it feels. Hippie art fair under the train tracks. Muggings at gunpoint by the moonlit lake. Darkness and light. Take me, free me.

Saturday, very interesting day.

It is the day that I attempted to fast, and I would classify it as successful. It is also the day that I went bicycling for 5 hrs (with like 1 hr "lunch" break in the middle) at the surreally beautiful beyond-Shatin area. Just look at that sky, and sea, and mountains, and pristine techy paradise-of-the-future california-meets-hk sight. It is also the day I was an accessory at my in-laws' mother's day dinner. It is also the day I enjoyed a concert. It is also the day I didn't go to a toga/luau party. It is also the day I was very hungry and kept falling over from fatigue. It is also the day I became very sore.

Throughout the day I had green veggie drinks, lemon water and a watermelon juice (which I think is somewhat kosher for the fast). To make a long story short, I DID cheat a little with half of a glorious shrimp spring roll and two small bites of bread stick. Around 11pm I had at least 2 bowls of miso soup and 1/4 pear...

I would've thought it'd be easy for me to fast, seeing as how I could go through days barely eating anything in college and post-college. But living here and being out is SO HARD because the food is SO GOOD, and you are bombarded with the smells, and I am never attempting a fast again if I have to be out doing stuff.

Next day, I felt SO GOOD and not hungry and got up to this by guru Kris Carr:

"Remember, it’s not about weight, disease reversal, fixing the blues (or your marriage). Start small. Love yourself at the cellular level."

Oh, the torture!

Really, trying to be good about food.

But, again, writing about food.

Currently craving... feel like if I could only choose one sweet dessert to have for the rest of my life, it would have to be the fritters at Peking Garden. Of course I said the same thing about ice cream mochi when I was eating that. I would've probably said the same thing about a Napoleon I was having on Tuesday.

Back to the fritters. OMG. The menu says taro, but apparently it's a mistake (confirmed)because there is no taro inside, just starchy potato/rice paste with some red date paste. Candied. OMG. (That fateful day six pieces arrived for our table of four, and while each person having one pieces would be 6-4=2, instead of devouring the remaining two like I normally would - the other people weren't as into it as I was - I just had an extra one. Ah, restraint.)

Thing is, I have come to realize I'M NOT NORMAL. Normal people are NOT like this. They do not have these insane cravings for certain dishes, like obsessively salivatingly. I mean, this is a revelation. I've always been 10 times more ravenous when it comes to eating junk food or any other food I like. I've always wondered how people can hold back and not "stuff their face" when eating chips or Corn Caramel, which is literally what I do. I used to think people are just being polite, but now I realize... there's something wrong with me.

It's not until I get really REALLY "this time it's for real" serious about no sugar that I realize just how bad my addiction is. I tried doing no sugar, bread, alcohol and caffeine but literally cannot because of my job but I also really crave it like crazy and find myself cheating even outside of work. However, I have cut WAY back.

For example, last weekend out for dinner, my mom ordered garlic bread, which came in six pieces. I am obsessed with garlic bread. But I was so good I only had one piece. Normally, I'm not kidding, I would for sure have had five pieces in five minutes - leaving one just out of the goodness of my heart to the other diners. Which makes me realize how gross I "normally" eat.

Went to H&M's new Kowloon flagship store media event on Friday night, 20% discount on all clothing. Four things I purchased: 1) white tee that's super me, 2) tulipy tissuey skirt with lavendar animalish print that's super me, 3) navy shorts that can be let down to be a little longer, very Abercrombie actually, 4) tattoo-print cardigan, obviously me...

I could do one of those mix-and-match editorials with these four things, a la "a week's worth of outfits" haha...

Good test

(Detailed and accurate test with 24 possible results!)

Your result for The Which Lost Character Are You Test ...

Kate

You scored 63% kindness, 41% courage, 50% seedy past, and 67% secretiveness!

JUST SAYIN'!

After multiple people urged me to watch Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent , I made an occasion of it by actually turning on my home computer - seeing as how my work one has no speakers (and I am too low-tech to figure out where to plug in my headphones. Forgive me, I work on a PC from the stoneage, not very user-friendly to begin with).

OK before hearing her, I had already read that she sang I Dreamed a Dream and wowed everyone. I knew her voice was especially surprising given her appearance, general spastic demeanor and possible channeling of William Hung in the department of naive confidence. Oh and apparently she has a disability, although I am not going to make assumptions about what that is referring to.

Looking at the screenshots, I tried to imagine a buttery I Dreamed a Dream coming out of this woman's voice. I tried but could not imagine it, partly because of the song. I wouldn't consider it the easiest song to blow people away.

So finally, I get home and it's my chance to hear the person who's caused so much hype, to be truly surprised, and... People! The segment was totally packaged to be a tear-jerker, first of all, with the background music. There was also the "cutting away" to the audience's reactions (initial disgust, then awe), which I'm guessing were taken entirely out of context (as in, those poor people's disgusted facial expressions were made during a truly disgusting moment and not when Susan Boyle was speaking).

On to the singing. UGH. I get it, I get that she is confident and has a good personality. Kudos, really! Screw everyone who ever made fun of her, because that's not nice. But her voice only comes as a surprise because she didn't SOUND LIKE WILLIAM HUNG... but that's IT. This is making me all frowny face because it's not talent... it's just... better-than-william-hungness. I don't know how else to put it. The vibrato is scary terrible. She has no low notes. Actually, zero technique. And no emotion to go with this super depressing song. Why is everyone reacting? Because of the darn packaging of the segment! If this were American Idol she would've been one of the BAD ones. Got Talent is a less cynical show than Idol so they decided to go this route with Susan Boyle, but... still... this is such a stretch. She can't sing.

Interesting chat convo from a while back...

[This was December 26, I think.]

me: are u working today?
A: ya...in office...my life sucks...
me: hey i am in office too
so that means my life sucks
but i think u r the first person i know who's working today (other than my colleagues)
A: they are independent, and somewhat overlapping, but causal, but just happened both to be true for me....if that makes sense..haha

Super quick post re: BSG

Watched the series finale of Battlestar Galactica two nights ago.

Quoting the Watcher (IMHO best TV blog): "That's it. 'Battlestar' got into my soul. No other show has reached into the core of my being and made me physically feel so much: Fear, nausea, anxiety, excitement, tension, exhilaration, joy. Sometimes I cried, other times -- as during much of the first hour of the finale -- it made me want to stand up and cheer."

I felt nausea and anxiety through almost every episode... it's just too freaky.

Love this guy.

Butterfly Dreams

Coldplay concert last night was SO GOOD. Of course I couldn't get good photos or anything with it being dark, except the "Lovers in Japan" butterflies (yay posted!). The media comp was in the most expensive section but still way too far away booo.

It's really not fair how talented Chris Martin is. Freak.

I love how the first pic has the big screen...

I read about 75% of Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain but am a little disappointed. It's supposed to be scandalous but it's not THAT scandalous. I have a feeling it's not the book, it's me, I'm just jaded. Also, Bourdain was quite self-congratulatory over and over again... which I don't like AT ALL in a memoir... I LOVE self-deprecation. Is that weird?

Well now I'm reading Outliers, you know, another bestseller churned out by the guy who wrote Blink. His books are great fun to read, but I actually sort of detest Blink. It's a pop psychology book that could've been written by anyone who did a few hours of research and interviewed a few key people. It's formulaic. And actually, I don't think Blink really had one overarching argument, just that, in general, intuition is powerful. Uh... yeah. I am finding Outliers much more interesting and pointful - so far. Definitely recommended so far! hee.

By the way it's not for the faint of heart

Seriously this weekend has been really very interesting and cool and great... I hate to say it, even, because I'm so not a "birthday" person, but lots of fun stuff occurred this weekend, one of which was...

In Bruges.

OMG. V.Li had couriered to me about 15 movies two weeks ago. Courier, because it's just fun and hilarious, OK? Anyway, I finally popped one in which I'd been very interested in seeing.

So I think this completes the trifecta of recent funny assassin movies loved by me: 1) Lucky Number Slevin, 2) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, 3) In Bruges

Edited to add: LOL just found out In Bruges was nominated for best original screenplay for 2008.

birthday weekend and other notes

I'm not much into my birthday, although I think this year's was pretty good. Got some really nice gifts :) Had several birthday-related meals. My innards are champagne-laden. Played Guitar Hero. Good.

On Saturday I went shopping by myself, which is actually my favorite mode of shopping... I had to go to buy Murad face stuff and they don't sell it in many places in HK so I had to go to Harbour City's Lane Crawford Faces. OK I have never gushed about Murad in my blog but I really ought to because I absolutively swear by it. Like the infomercial interviewees say, Murad acne complex has changed my life. I'm making it sound like I had really bad skin before which isn't exactly accurate, but it was far from blemish-free. And blemishes are day-ruining bastards. About 2 months after using Murad acne complex, my skin was comPLETEly clear and has pretty much stayed that way for the past 1.5 years. As in, it has changed my life. Oh and have I mentioned that I have tried EVERYTHING? An amassment of an enormous collection of trials and errors since the age of 13.

So anyway I ran out and went to Faces to buy it, and of course the Murad counter has no customers... since no one knows about it here, no surprise (the Bliss counter also empty teehee), which, if I really think about it, just means all the better for me, since I am now possibly like their best customer. I had extensive discussions with the salesgirl about the products because I also wanted to get the brightening serum and an eye cream (ever notice how you manage to run out of every face thing at the exact same moment? It's one of those cosmic mysteries). So the deal's done and she throws in, like, HK$500 worth of samples. UH, YAY.

Also: dilemma. I really need some advice about this. I get a free facial from Murad. I don't know if I should accept the offer, because I am terrified of going to the facial and they expect me to buy something! Oh and they just called me and told me to go pick up a birthday gift from Murad HAHA I'm feeling very locked-in to this relationship.

After my little Faces excursion (also signed up for the Faces VIP card... sigh, have I become their bitch?... and the free gift was a Bliss sample, YES!), on to my next stop, one of my top 5 favorite stores in the world: BCBGeneration... formerly known as BCBGirls... yeah it sells all the lower lines under BCBG... and half the store was 70% off. OMG. I tried on 8 things. Went home with 3.

One of the most eventful things of this weekend didn't even happen to me. Well it's more like, one of the most holy-frick things I can imagine occurring... Tim went to a concert by himself (uh, sorry for outing your awesome level of lonerdom - but hey I'm going to the Coldplay concert by myself this Wednesday! (Only managed to get one media comp, you see.)) and ran into none other than Marie Digby! He went up to her and started talking to her about his friend who's obsessed with her. Hahaha! They took pictures! THEN he was really pissed because he should've asked her to record a birthday message for me LOL omg... I would've flipped. That would've been insane. Woulda coulda shoulda. Heehee.

Quest for the pretty

Our company camera's lens is in the repair shop right now (OK, it miiight have been my fault...) so I borrowed one of my dad's 300 cameras to take pix for work. The one I borrowed rocks... it's small (no big lens or anything) and good looking and the pictures turned out really well. I'm just so happy with how these pix turned out so here... and I'm guessing the camera is way beyond my budget.

Look, I used major zoom and it turned out crystal clear:

And I am very adept at flower function now. "Macro," I know:

This one was just pretty. Hong Kong Park is pretty amazing, really really:

And... I adore this pic: