I hate singers

I have always sung in choruses. I love to sing choral music of any kind, especially sacred music. But I actually can't stand other choristers. Having joined numerous amateur choruses as an adult and often quitting after a season, I have many thoughts on why being in a choir is so annoying. The following is not criticism, just why I personally get annoyed by choir people, and why it is hard for me to be happy being part of a choir. And I own up to having some of these negative traits myself:

• Many choristers are divas and are constantly SHOWING OFF. The nature of choral singing means you're not supposed to show off. You're supposed to blend, and listen to each other, and do what the conductor/choirmaster says, and not TALK incessantly during rehearsal about how much you love a piece. It's not about you. But part of being a performer is drawing attention to oneself, so a diva mentality comes with the territory.
• On the flip side, many choristers are a bit antisocial. Singing is a somewhat meditative exercise that often appeals to introverts. Therefore, sometimes you enter a choir situation where people don't have much social grace and don't introduce themselves to new people. It's off-putting.
• Choir experience starts at school, and those were good times. The thing about joining choirs as an adult is you won't know most people in them. You don't go to school together anymore, you're cooperating with a bunch of strangers, and this makes is much less fun. It kind of takes ALL the fun out of it.
• Adult choirs are mostly filled with senior citizens and housewives, so it's harder for younger people to relate and make friends. There are definitely all kinds of people, but these two categories dominate.
• I once sang with a chorus that was extremely high caliber. It was so good because people studying voice were somehow required to be in it (for credit or something). These were the most unfriendly, cliquey, diva-ish people I have ever encountered. So that's the trade off. Good choirs mean horrible people.

Frugalista

Reading an article about Mr. Money Mustache and frugality made me want to catalogue my own spending habits.

Things I do differently from many of my friends that save me money:

• Don't get manicures or pedicures
• Don't get massages or facials
• Don't buy designer handbags, clothes, shoes, nail polish, jewelry
• Don't get blackout drunk on weekends
• Don't have meals that cost more than HK$400 per head except on select birthdays
• Don't stay at five-star hotels on holidays
• Only get haircuts once every 6+ months and never get other treatments
• Get haircuts at Mina Dev'wil
• Take a lot of mass transportation instead of taxis if alone
• Don't impulse buy makeup
• Try to keep lunch below HK$60
• Eat lots of Subway sandwiches, pizza and kebabs for dinner
• Drink lots of wine from 7-Eleven
• Drink beer
• Don't take classes
• Read a lot
• Hike a lot
• Don't ever lose cellphone
• Banned clubbing from life
• Banned from life any drink that comes in a plastic bottle, unless in hiking emergency

Things I do differently from many of my friends that cost me money:

• Leave air-conditioning on all day during summer months
• Have a cat
• Am only willing to fly on Cathay Pacific or Dragonair (if out of HKG)
• Live in Soho
• Don't live with parents
• Buy coffee from Starbucks almost every weekday
• Don't let guys pay for everything
• Buy high-end cosmetics
• Don't have insurance for doctors' visits
• Don't get corporate discounts

Things I should do:

• INVEST

Shop window origami 2013

Seems that the last time I posted shop window origami was way back in 2011. Here are photos of ones I've spotted, all in Hong Kong, since April this year.

Cool! Hummingbirds in earth tones at Coach (Queen's Road). It's not really obvious what's going on in this window until you take a step back, and it turns out the hummingbirds are holding up shoes. I guess the mannequin is meant to be enjoying a fine fall day in the park, surrounded by shoes and hummingbirds. So random, but interesting:

Not real origami, because it's not really folded out of a piece of paper but more like assembled. A giant faux origami elephant at Gap Kids (Hysan Place):

This one was hard to photograph but turned out kinda cool looking. Birds and starburst geometric origami in the Sogo window facing the street. I like the different positions of the wings:

These cranes are folded out of lai see envelopes, at Mint & Lemongrass (Soho). A really good idea, since those envelopes can be really pretty, are often free and a waste to throw out. This is a kind of display that a small store can easily put up to add a festive air around Chinese New Year time. But it also seems weird to combine Chinese and Japanese traditions, imho, and cranes are so strongly associated with Japan:

Goodbye, lover

H&M finally closes its Central store. It had been previously reported that it was closing due to high rents. I know this is the dumbest post ever, but it's totally sad. H&M in Central has provided hours of shopping therapy to me for small sums of money. It is one of the very few places in Central to buy inexpensive clothing. It was stuffed with articles of clothing so varied that I had found there no-fail outfits for job interviews as well as components to many a Halloween costume that one could actually wear on normal days too. You did good, big ol' store.

Book quote

Irritated by the insect buzz of a harpsichord on KDFC (which she obliged herself to tune in to for the supposed relaxing properties of baroque music, despite its always having struck her as the auditory equivalent of trying to fold origami in your mind).

--Page 143, Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon

(The latest in an ongoing series of sightings of the word origami in a novel I'm reading.)

It just needs to be said

The most delicious food in the vicinity of Hollywood Road is kebabs from Beyrouth. Not cheap, with a smallish lamb kebab costing HK$65. Keeps me wanting more ...

Frivolous rave/question

I bought a shower gel about half a year ago by the brand o'Naomi, which I don't expect anyone to have heard of. I hadn't. This is the website.

Reasons for purchase:

• It said made in Hong Kong, so I figure I save on transportation costs, and it's more environmentally friendly.
• It said "organic," which I am skeptical about naturally (har-har), but still it swayed me. I later found out from their website that they also supposedly do not use dioxane, a carcinogen found in many products.
• It was called "sugarcane and orange blossom" shower gel. The short-ish ingredient list included essence of those things, and olive oil. Somehow, sugarcane seemed like a believable ingredient, because it's cheap. I normally assume when a product says it has an exotic, expensive ingredient (like I dunno, caviar? Avocado?) that it just has half a drop per bottle, and it's actually a turnoff because I think they are exaggerating and are therefore immoral.
• The label design was not very attractive (similar to those pictured). So I thought I wasn't paying for some expensive design service.
• It was cheaper than the more well-known brands, likely for the above reasons.

Review:
It's totally normal and feels good and smells good. No problems. I'm gonna only buy this brand from now on for hair and bath stuff for the above reasons. So unless I get a dud, I'll just use this. (I also had an extreme allergic skin reaction to a Tresemme shampoo recently, so I am very fed up with imported big names that just use fancy plastic bottles and are just full of chemicals anyway.)

Question:
I wonder what other people think of this brand. They make these unattractive-looking shampoos and conditioners that use Chinese herbs. They are kind of hidden on one side of the drugstore shelf with the other unattractive shampoos, while the Vidal Sassoon and Japanese brands, in their sleek, shiny, expensive-looking packaging, are prominently displayed under bright lighting.

Quote of the Day

"it's a little weird to me that the first thing you think after getting engaged is 'i NEED to change my status....on facebook.' "

--Justin H., via gchat (and no, he doesn't mean "you" like me, but "you" like "someone." Specifically people who annoy the shit out of us on Fb.)

Mmm, solid wood

Me: You have the nicest furniture out of all my friends.
Dave: That's because I'm the oldest of all your friends.

Never give up on your orchid*

I bought this small orchid plant at the Flower Market in Mong Kok two Decembers ago. I kept it alive for about a year after all the flowers on the stem had bloomed and died, but all that grew were roots, lots and lots of roots, in the style of Medusa's hair, and new leaves that weren't looking too healthy. This photo doesn't do the roots or leaves justice. Some of the leaves have burnt tips. I seriously considered throwing this plant away. But last week I noticed -- finally!! -- a new stem coming out (pictured). I was shocked that this was happening. I thought this plant would never bloom again. Moral: never give up on your orchid. *Unless it's in really, really bad shape.

quote of the day

"Well it is good that you didn't die. I would be devastated among many mourners."

--Tim, via chat. Haha, a nice thing to say.

Favorite article of clothing

 

I love this top. Nice tie-dye, with a braided neckline and more braids down one side, has that soft vintage feel. It's supposed to be a dress, according to the Forever 21 website. It looks totally horrible on the website and as a dress.

Anyway, this is the perfect unintentional shirt. Something like US$20. Purchased at the zoo that is the Forever 21 store in Hong Kong.

It's O.K., we're not cool.

Me: I was a cowgirl for Halloween, and everyone told me it was boring.
Jen: I was a cowgirl for Halloween one time, and everyone said it was boring too. Actually, I was a cowgirl two years in a row.

Still get sad

but without it I might just be angry.

What I hate most in the world

When I say to myself, after work, "Wait, was I supposed to leave work just now? Crap. I hope no one's mad at me for leaving."

I love this story

This is how low Hong Kong's crime rate is. When the police force isn't goofing off (I say this with utmost affection) making a hotpot dinner, it is out on a crackdown of ... pickpocketing prostitutes. I heart Hong Kong:

SCMP, August 7

Two African women were sentenced to nine months in prison yesterday after they stole a wallet from a policeman pretending to be a drunk Wan Chai bar customer.

Judith Karimi and Josephine Nkatha Kenyan John, both from Kenya, were arrested in a police crackdown on pickpockets in the bar areas of Wan Chai and Lan Kwai Fong.

Each pleaded guilty in Eastern Court to one count of theft.

The court heard that the policeman, who had arrived in the area about an hour and a half earlier, was approached by John outside a bar on Luard Road at about 5am.

She chatted with him until they were joined half an hour later by Karimi who introduced herself as "Maria" and said she was from Ethiopia.

They sat on a step outside another bar where the policeman put his head in his hands, pretending to be drunk, and John massaged his back while talking to Karimi in a presumably African language. The officer then felt fingers in his trouser pocket take hold of the wallet, containing HK$640, and saw Karimi pass it to John.

Karimi shouted across the street to two other African women. John was holding a number of banknotes, trying to pass them to the women. The policeman then declared his identity and arrested them.

In mitigation, Karimi, 31, told Deputy Magistrate Kennis Tai Chiu-ki that she was involved in the case only because John asked her to help. She agreed "because the intention was to help [John] get medical fees for her son". Lawyer Alan Lo said John, 35, was a single mother taking care of a 12-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter.

In the first half of the year, police dealt with 12 pickpocket cases around Lockhart Road.

All bases covered

Never seen such a thoughtful, thorough rendition of this before:

Most major religions represented in this shrine to the gods of everything. Just in case. Taken at friend's parents' house while all were away, helping to check in on her cat. (And yes, I think it's totally ridiculous.)

ella ella ella

The unnecessary umbrella stacking is back, this time at a level befitting extreme Typhoon days.

It's so dumb. Everyone's cubicle is actually spacious enough to accommodate an individual umbrella. People obviously do this for some kind of solidarity reason: We're all in this together.

Fashion Rant

Can someone please help me out here. Tell me it's not just me. How on earth do people wear dresses or tops with belts like the one pictured on the right? So many times have I attempted to try on a dress which didn't look quite right, when a saleswoman grabs a biggish belt and straps it around my rib cage. TIGHT. Like corset tight. And dang, it looks good! But, hello, I can't breathe. What the heck? Even skinny belts on dresses restrict my airflow so much that I have to take it off midday. Everyone I've spoken to about this problem says it's just me, but I refuse to believe it. Belts on dresses do not work or make sense, right? Right??

Announcement

I paid for expensive eye cream for the first time ever.

I've used eye cream on and off since around age 12. Way more off than on. And usually it's been free: large samples from high-end brands, small samples from high-end brands, lots of ones my mom got and didn't like. And I bought Olay-type ones maybe twice, only to use it about twice and give up the grand eye-cream plans.

Until ... now! Thou shalt not age without putting up a fight.

I walked into Clinique and told the unknowledgeable salesman to give me the most expensive of the four eye creams that they sold.

Will report back in a few months.

By the way, I've become weirdly loyal to Clinique. Not exactly sure what marketing voodoo they've been using on me. Although I only use their Moisture Surge face gel (which I highly recommend if you have combo/oily skin) and now Repairwear Intensive Eye Cream, I only use four skin products total (the other two are Murad). I also use one of their polymer mascaras and can't be bothered to research other brands' so just stick with it ... looks like they've got me.