Mazeltov~

Sunday

On Sunday M and I decided to hold a lunch thing with the Lovigans (or Lovigans by association – sort of) as a birthday thingy since our birthdays are just a few days apart :3

We decided to go to Madang Korean BBQ Restaurant, located at 371A Pitt Street, just at the end of the lane off Kim Sun Young hairdressers.

The last time we went I had japchae while I watched the others cook meat that looked yummy *insert drool marks here* – but anyway, we decided to just go for Korean since lunch was relatively late, and they’re always open.

A total of 17 people were meant to come, but yesterday it was just a cosy 7 people due to people having other commitments – it’s just that time of the year when everyone’s busy with assignments. Funnily for me (and the friends I invited) we had a teeny bit of breathing space in this intense time of the year. But anyway, it was Awesome with a capital A – the entire table was filled with food.

The fried dumplings entree was soooo yummy! You can see the sauce they gave us for the BBQ, and the pork belly on the plate that M was craving lol. Not sure why the photos are turning out somewhat dark lately :\ Speaking of which, I don’t have many photos to share because I no longer have a digital camera. Looks so weird if I take out my phone to take photos.

It was a race to pay the bill once M and I saw R walking out for a smoke – almost every time he does that, he casually walks to the counter on the way back in and pays off the entire bill >_< AIN’T HAPPENIN’ TODAY MISTER!

But as soon as I return to the table, I see C chucking a handful of coins into my bag >_<

Then the three invited guests of mine all started throwing their notes at me >_> Of course, those all went returned. Temporarily :\

We went to noraebang at LIVE shortly afterwards and it was a very slow start. It took us about 1.5 hours to get into it, and with just 15 minutes left on the clock, D gets the karaoke counter girl to bring in this cake >_<

… and that’s what I mean by “temporarily” returning money – this is just a repeat of last year >_< But thanks guys!

The cake was really nice! It was a lovely soft and creamy fruit/ mango cake that D bought from some “secret store using secret ingredients” – though when I mentioned this to P he just made a gross reference to Harold and Kumar. NOT NAICE. Hope M‘s sister et al enjoyed it! It was a scramble to find a takeaway container because the cake no longer had a box – the cake had no forks, spoons or plates, so the boys ripped up the box and we used cardboard as spoons lolol – by far the most interesting way to eat a cake o_o

Then the girl at the counter gave us so much free time Dx We must have been there for an extra 40 minutes at the very least (I’m thinking they gave us an extra hour)- by then we were having AWESOME fun just putting in random Korean songs we knew but didn’t know how to sing, and just mumbling/ impersonating what it sounded like. I must say we did a good enough job – we sang Gee by SNSD, Oh! by SNSD, Sorry Sorry by Super Junior (the Japanese version was put up, but we sang it in Korean anyway LOL), Bang! by After School, Because of you by After School, Heartbeat by 2PM (then it got cut… we shoulda waited until the chorus!) and a range of other songs including Big Bang.

TIP AT NORAEBANG: bring a notepad and pen next time and write down the song name and the number of the song you’d like to sing/ sing regularly! Or you can make a memo on your phone.

We always sing Big Bang’s “How Gee” every time without fail and it takes SUCH a long time to find the song in the books. I think I remember the number this time, and it’s 46171! Next time I’m gonna type that in and fingers crossed it’s the right number!

Anyway, thanks guys for coming and hope you enjoyed the day! We had some massive stomach aches laughing at noraebang because of the weird things we did but it was SO FUN(NY).

Gotta catch up with all of you again in the weeks to come – photog, meal, noraebang? Whateeeves – as long as we have fun another day! (and the punch in that is that fun is always a given )

I had a really fun day though it was long – went to sleep around 1am, and when I woke up this morning, my body was well and truly aching. We didn’t even walk much yesterday. I think it was just the fact we were crammed into a small dark room for about 3 hours? Maybe.

Oh, and when I got home I looked in my bag and there were 2 stray $5 notes flying around. WHO?! WHY?! I asked around and it possibly was change from the cake and the bottles of water >_> But uhm, I dunno because I never got a solid response ._. People are just suggesting my bag is growing money. Thanks guys but I don’t think that’s possible ._.

What’s in the box?

Aside from the mystery $10, I also got a present from A.

I was curious since it was a box (and it was a hard box) and she told me she ordered it online (something she close to never does).

Blurry photo. Guh.

Indeed it was curious.

It’s a Digital Photo Viewer! :O

I was (and still am) very stoked! Thanks so much!

You recharge it with a USB and you can store about 100 or so photos on it. It’s actually a keyring so you can hook it to whatever you need. It also has some other features like a stopwatch and stuff – VERY COOL. And it’s pretty, too! It has a silver back like an iPhone/ iPod touch. WOOHOO!

For more information on one of these babies, visit www.doma.com.hk – I have no idea how she ordered it or anything, but thanks!

And the weight is…

So okay. You all get the general idea. I hula hooped intensively on the days I did do it, but I skipped Thursday, possibly Friday (I can’t remember if I did on Friday or not), Saturday (because I was running around the city lugging maybe 10kg of crap) and Sunday (since we were probably all tired from a long day out).

I stepped on the scales this morning:

Lost 0.8kg.

I’m ON A ROLL.

To date I’ve lost 4.3kg already, so I’m just 700g away from the target 5kg.

Also, I was writing about the smaller waist – I’ve finally gotten the waist somehow to shrink to an entire half inch, so I can now write about it. WOOHOO! I went down from 30″ (I think – I am looking through my diary and I wrote a 30 in a bubble and made it pretty, but I don’t know what it means…) and now I’m 27.5″ waist. Note that I’m using inches too – it’s a huge difference in cm *dons sunglasses*

My jeans aren’t really getting any looser because they all hang from my hips, which is understandable. I must say, it’d really suck if I had to replace ALL my jeans in my closet. I was comfortable with my size, so I bought lots. I just have hips that won’t shrink Dx – and the worst part is that I always wear a size 29 (ie 29″) jeans (low cut) but they were ALWAYS loose. I’ve tried 28 and it’s a teeny bit tight (sure I can fit them on, zip, button etc – but they feel like they’re cutting my circulation off at the very top). Damn this bone structure. MAKES NO SENSE MUCH.

The legs are still the same measurement, which I find is weird, since I feel they look smaller. Or more toned perhaps.

But anyway guys, I hope that this diary has been informative and will give you all good encouragement – I ate quite a lot at Korean BBQ, had a generous serving of cake and came home to dinner. Didn’t exercise for about half the week (though I’ve kept active) and I’ve still been eating and sleeping adequately (well sort of adequately, about 6 hours sleep per night) and still managed to lose the weight.

I have to keep writing this: you can still eat the foods you love – do NOT starve yourself!

And here’s some more inspiration:

UEE is made of prettysauce.

I really like that hair on her strangely enough. Hot shoes.

Just as a comparison, look at her thighs back then! Still nice, but whoa – big difference. She did so much work this girl – fierce!

Img src (for all): After School 유이(UEE) Official Thread @ soompi forums

Can’t wait for tonight – GOOD NEWS WEEK.

I’ll end this post as they do in the start of the show – “and that’s the good news this week!”

All about the Gakkenflex.

If you came here because you had a problem assembling the Gakkenflex, scroll down. This is my every day blog so I’ll be writing in chronological order. And yes, I can solve the spring/ shutter problem most of you have had.

So today I went out shopping. I was meant to grab some essentials and stuff to do nail art with, but NO – FAR OUT – I had to do so much and carry so much crap around the city I didn’t even make it Dx

I wanted to buy a pair of Ugg boots because I stay up late and it’s getting cold. Yes, you read it right, I wanted them as house slippers. Recently I’ve been wearing sports socks and Havaianas Japanese Geta style. Very horrible without a yukata, but it did the trick.

Oh please don’t arrest me, Fashion Police
Img src: http://kimonobox.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/geta-1.JPG

I couldn’t find the low ankle ones, and there was such a long line at Myer (30% off all boots – explains it all) I couldn’t be bothered. In fact, when I looked at the boots, the label on the back looked funny (did they overhaul their logo? I have no idea) and the general craftsmanship looked bad. There’s no way I’m paying that much for that. I could get something else instead with an actual REAL BRAND!

I then later went to Maruya (or is it Maruyu?) to buy my mum some plastic containers – 2 containers for $2.50 – BARGAIN! Then I headed to Kinokuniya for a browse. At the counter, something caught my eye: Otona no Kagaku – TLR INCLUDED INSIDE?! I had to just pick it up (stepped out of the queue) and bought it on impulse.

Went to Rogues to buy a pair of Paul Frank uggs (cheaper, does the job of keeping my feet warm, look nicer – I believe), went to Woolworths to pick up some groceries, and stood in sprinkling rain for about 20 minutes before my bus came.

I. Was. Exhausted.

My bag was heavy (put my Maruya/u stuff into it), I was carrying a LOT of stuff!

So this is what I ended up with today:

Julius is made of awesome. So is Gakkenflex, until it becomes a pest to assemble.

Honestly speaking I was most excited about the Gakkenflex because I really wanted to assemble it. Usually I have a tendency to buy things out of boredom, and in this case, boy would it be fun to assemble a camera!

I roughly remember M posting about the Gakkenflex being a tool to educate even just kids on how cameras work. You can read her posts here: CLICKY and CLICKY ;)

Having said that, I roughly know how it works. Something has to expose the film, and then you turn it. Fair enough, but how does it work? I had no idea and I was keen to find out. Seems like it’s just a fairly simple spring mechanism that does the trick to everything.

I know a lot of people have been having trouble with not Spring C (the middle screw) as most people mistaken it to be. The problem generally lies in the smallest small spring on the left.

Here’s how the camera works: The left spring acts in tension to allow the shutter to close. The other two on the right act in compression to turn the shutter.

What happens if the shutter doesn’t open completely or if it doesn’t close quick enough? – Don’t fret. Assemble your lens first, and attach it to the front (just the bottom one will do). You’ll find that the shutter doesn’t need to open all the way – about 80% of the way is good enough – why? Because the pin hole at the front isn’t as big as you thought it was. That’s one reason why I took so long – I was trying to get it perfect. Try loosening and tightening and clicking the handle on the front. It takes trial and error.

What happens if the shutter doesn’t close automatically? The spring on the far left is acting in tension so you need to loosen the screw and trial and error.

OR YOU COULD SCRAP ALL THAT AND START FROM THE BEGINNING LIKE WHAT I DID TO FIX UP THIS BUNGLE:

Assemble the far left spring. Without putting the screw in place, position the shutter closed. With your finger just push it open and watch if the shutter springs closed. If it does, congratulations, your spring is in good working order!

Note that the higher the spring is on the vertical stick, the faster the shutter closes. Unfortunately the stick (or column or whatever you want to call it) does NOT have any grooves or anything to keep the spring up. With time, I noticed the spring had a tendency to slip down, elongating the spring, lessening the amount of spontaneous tension required.

So if you have had braces or know someone who has them, ask them for 2-3 elastics and tie it around the base so the spring has nothing to slip on. You may also use glue, but it might wreck the interior of the camera if you can’t set it properly.

Note the elastics (yellow bit) to stop the spring from slipping down.

Hit the shutter a few times and watch it spring back. Fast? Excellent. Screw it down (low enough so your middle spring installation can be turned and slotted in) and do it again to check. tighten the screws and with each tighten, just check it. Generally you need to screw it down fairly low – NOT TIGHT – but low, because something goes over this part and if that part doesn’t go flush due to a few elevated screws, the side panels won’t attach neatly. Make sure the middle screw isn’t too tight or loose and it ACTUALLY OPENS THE SHUTTER!

This is just common problem solving like what you do in a computer program or parametrics – do something, test if it works, before moving onto the next step.

The problem was, you usually didn’t know what the spring was for and how it was supposed to work (another language, no diagram to show), so you move onto the next step because it looks correct.

So, make sure that (1) The shutter closes by itself, quickly (2) The middle part is pushed by the right part and actually opens the shutter. And (3) the shutter closes by itself when you open the shutter. It’s as simple as that.

The biggest misconception is that you need to assemble from left to right. You can actually leave the far right spring and just take out the left and middle one. It doesn’t affect anything. In fact (this is somewhat embarassing) – I didn’t read the instructions and I snapped the front of the Gakkenflex (there’s a little bit that controls how far the shutter release handle goes) – but that didn’t affect anything at all.

Either way, if you find that you’ve done something like I did and elevated the base of the spring on the left, doesn’t matter how far down you screw (just not dead tight), the shutter will open and close relatively quickly. Perfection.

It actually took me about 5 hours to assemble this camera. It took a lot of trial and error, losing springs and screws and trying to find them on the floor, and trying to get everything perfect. The instructions were somewhat graphically counterintuitive (goes into detail AFTER they tell you what to do – so I have to undo it and redo it) and I was trying to get the shutter perfect. I had no idea how a shutter was meant to perform, so I was constantly nagging M about it and asking her how she got hers to work. Turns out my elevated spring idea may mean she will have to reassemble it after her roll of film for better camera functionality

Just a note – I can read drawings and I can also read Japanese and understand it. I was just too lazy to read the text (I eventually did when the shutter failed to work), but when M told me to reassemble the shutter from the start, I realised how the springs started to work, and that elevated base is essential to get a quick close of the shutter. Make sure when you assemble the camera that you try to understand the mechanism behind it – tension, compression – what matters and what doesn’t – and you will solve the problem eventually.

It was a nightmare to assemble – they actually gave a few extra screws and it came with a magnetic screwdriver. The screws were tiny and I was assembling the camera under very dim light levels. I was trying to be super careful after I snapped a bit of the front because I realised the plastic wasn’t so good.

Yes, there are a few problems with the parts and how they’re manufactured. If that stick had a thicker base, I wouldn’t have to go to all that trouble tying elastic bands (and that took a while – anyone who has had braces will know how small these bands are).

I’m highly sceptical of people who claim they assembled the camera in an hour – if they did it’s probably because they understand the mechanism and construction of a camera fairly well. Otherwise I highly doubt it, because the screws are tiny – your screwdriver wobbles, and then you lose the screw, tip it out and start again – maybe not even twice, but several times.

This was a lot more time consuming than I had expected it to be, which isn’t a good thing lol. The good thing though is that I have a good Gakkenflex in working order. Bought it at a bargain price and it was fun. I now understand how a camera works, and I have a TLR now. I’m considering decorating this camera – maybe during the holidays.

The finished product in a more sexier than usual phone camera shot. Pretty!

Btw, screwing/ turning those lens in HURT. Make sure you have a cloth near by. I used my jumper sleeve but sometimes it got caught in the gears >_< Also the worst thing about this kit is that they don’t give you a camera strap There are the ears for it  but no strap Dx

I won’t load film into this until tomorrow perhaps. I want to show M how the shutter is working before I load film! I hope I get lovely shots out of it. I’m drooling at the ones in the magazine. Seriously pretty and amazing photos. LOVE.

PS: At this rate I might be converted to being a film gal lol. No more money for a digital camera – the film cameras are eating up my money >_<

I was so absorbed doing this that I forgot to hula hoop. DOH! But walking around the city so much probably did the trick. It’s 1:26am right now so I think I better sleep. I need to look nice later today… will blog A BIG THANK YOU TO MAGGIE who had to put up with my complaining and for her help!

See you all!

All grins – until next week or the week after, lol

Today started early but also ended early.

My stress-o-metre went up and down like so:

Monday: Not stressed.
Tuesday: Sniffles – getting stressed and not stressed, alternating.
Wednesday: Not stressed since I was doing work – then stressed because I was procrastinating.
Thursday: STRESSED. Not stressed when I printed.
Friday: STRESSED when I got there and saw other people’s work and started doubting myself. NOT STRESSED after getting positive feedback from tutor (even about my graphics).

PHEW.

Though he said he liked my clear and direct graphics. Then he compared it to the art of Miffy.

Cuddly yet the idea of a sewn mouth could be grotesque. JUST KIDDING SHE’S ADORABLE &hearts;
Img src: http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/images/2006/04/25/miffy_changes_350x350.jpg

 Now when I look at that above image, yeah, it does look like my presentation, lol.

Anyway, I’m feeling good about this – I’m finally sort of on top of my design and not lagging behind. I don’t know for sure until I get the marks back, but I felt like it was all nice and resolved. Well, mostly anyway I think it was nice that I had my massing model studies – I need to buy more balsa for it – I sort of painted too many sheets of my balsa in black paint so I don’t think I can use it. I’ll see if I can, but I don’t even know where my sandpaper is and sand off the black paint.

Tonight I can do my hooping exercise – yay! I skipped it yesterday, so I’m looking forward to it maybe in an hour’s time

But yes – as you can tell I’m tired, quite satisfied and that’s that. I got plenty of sleep in comparison to the rest of my class, so I shouldn’t be complaining.

Continue to soldier on! YEAH! Till next blog – most likely on the weekend

Cutting it close

I have a lecture in 24 minutes, haven’t left my house, gotten changed, and nor have I transferred my files across to my harddrive yet to work on when I get to uni.

Something tells me that I’m very screwed.

See y’all later tonight!

HIRING: Concentration required

Sniffles

I’m not really sure if this is my sickness coming back or if it’s just the bad weather. I suspect it’s the bad weather and that it’s my sinus acting up, rather than coming down with the cold and all the funsauce-not- associated with it. Yesterday was fairly unproductive but I got a few things started. Nowhere enough considering I want to print this thing off TOMORROW NIGHT. Nothing on the sheet so far. I guess I’m a bit luckier than others because I’m capable of doing stuff on Photoshop with relatively little difficulty. I want to get this done! I still have a large model to make (I’ve made one building!) but the thing is, I’ve already made 2 smaller models already. That means I’ll be coming in with at least 3 models. I might be a bit hardcore and make 5, but maybe for next submission (means I need to spend more/ buy balsa – damn).

I’m just not really feeling the stress for some reason. I really cared about design last week but then when I realised that a lot of my problems were solve-able, I kind of jumped off the stressmeter. I was more stressed yesterday: felt sick. did little work, and everything crap that could possibly happen came tumbling down. So much that I only did 30 minutes of hula hooping too. I kind of just got tired and decided to call it quits (also I was asked to change a lightbulb at the 30 min mark, so when I got back I completely lost my momentum).

RE: “Fitness”

Oh feel free to skip reading this section. This is just me writing to myself to remind myself why I’m torturing myself. >_> If you’re looking to lose weight though, you could probably read on and question yourself the “necessity” of losing weight.

You’d think that it’s a bit ironic that I’m losing weight and generally you see on TV like on the Biggest Loser they’d say something like “oh after losing the 70kg I never got sick once the year I left the show! Back then I’d get sick all the time!”

This is why I was so reluctant to lose weight to begin with. Back then in high school I would literally fall sick maybe 5 times a year and I was particularly susceptible to the cold and flu virus. When I started to actually gain weight when I started uni, I felt like my immune system was better. I’d fall sick maybe only 2-3 times max, and in the previous year, just once. The sickness is slowly coming back to me. Only this time I’ve got my fingers crossed and I’ll take better care of myself and actually get fit and have a better immune system.

I guess one question that some of you might be wondering in your heads is, “if you weren’t even remotely overweight to begin with, why put yourself through all this?” – in fact it’s something I ask myself occasionally. Yeah, I was never overweight, and people didn’t really consider me being chubby either (though the photos I saw of myself I thought it looked pretty questionable). In fact in the top banner I’m the one with the black one shoulder dress with fluoro colour blocks.

I think this all has to do with a self esteem thing. I think I will look better and feel nicer if the weight is lost. Another thing that I encountered in the past few years (which I thought was rude) was people (namely male) making bad assumptions. I was told by someone who had never seen or met me in person that I had gained weight just because of one single photo. I didn’t know how to respond, and I never bothered to because I figured I shouldn’t let someone who has never even seen me to even judge me. I learned to ignore comments like that (though I only got one other one which really annoyed me, comparing me to a photo I took about 6 years prior – isn’t that somewhat remotely ludicrous?).

Now I’m just going to put my foot down and make a positive change in my life. If I see those jerks who made those comments to me (hopefully never in my life) I can tell them to shove it.

For any guys who are reading this and know a guy or have made comments like that to a girl concerning their appearance in terms of body image, I just wanted to let you all know that your comments are highly insensitive. You might think it’s a joke or a suggestion, but to a girl that will stay at the back of her mind forever. Especially in my case, my BMI was only ever as high as 21.5 – yet I got senseless comments like that. I don’t deny that some girls ultimately deserve harsh comments because it will do them good, but in my case, it really was unnecessary and has put me in a state of paranoia. If I don’t exercise for a day I panic; I’ve drastically cut down the amount of calories I take in each day – I’m still eating what I want, but I make a conscious effort to make sure I burn it all off and feel like my stomach is empty before I go to sleep.

I’m so paranoid about my appearance now that it even pops up in my dreams. I was just having a casual conversation about hair colours and last night I had this epic dream where I was colouring my hair, but didn’t have enough time to leave it to set, so when I washed it out the colour still wasn’t right.

To girls who have slight waists at 26″ or less and with BMIs around 21.5, you honestly don’t need to lose any weight. You need to tone, but not lose. Ignore any insensitive comments, and as hard as it is to ignore them and pretend people never said them to you, I managed to do so for at least a year. You can do it too, but make sure the changes you’re making to your lifestyle are positive, not extreme.

It perhaps would have been a better idea to take my own weight loss slower (3.5kg in 2 months is a lot, as slow as it is) so it wouldn’t have impacted that much on my life. But I’m the type of person to want to see results. If I don’t see results there’s little incentive for me to want to work. Even if they’re bad results, they’ll motivate me.

I have a lot of work to do even though my BMI is in a good range. I just want to let everyone know that you need to have a strong and good reason for dieting and know where to draw the line. Don’t do it in an unhealthy way. Exercise, eat – work it off. Drop your calories so you eat until you’re satisfied, but don’t ever starve yourself or leave yourself hungry. Treat yourself to something you love eating once a week. Take photos of yourself and reevaluate where you stand – sometimes looking at a photo is different to looking at yourself in the mirror.

Sometimes it’s good to just sit down, and think about your motives for losing weight. If you can justify it apart from “I’m fat” – then continue. Please look at your measurements, BMI and think about yourself in terms of a healthy perspective. Compare it to an idol if you must, but take into account their height, body frame and the fact that their profession involves spending every single day working hard to look good. Have a target weight loss. Consult it with a friend or someone (even on soompi if you must) and other people will give you a more realistic evaluation of what you’re trying to do. Simply put, stay focused but don’t get carried away. You sometimes just forget where you’re at. You just have to slow down sometimes in life – this applies for everything.

That’s all for today

Let’s mix up the routine!

Gym/ Cardio workouts start from June (late June), and I’m excited at the prospect of going to a dance class! Yes, M???

Next semester’s worload will considerably drop because I have 6 less units to complete (did them in the holidays 2 years ago), which leaves me a LOT of time for other stuff. I’m really excited and can’t wait for this semester to be over so that my life can be more normal next semester. You don’t know how happy I am at the thought – we’re talking 4.5 years so far of gruelling deadlines and workloads.

The best part about the dance classes is that they’re affordable and I bet they’ll be super fun. It’s one of those things you consistently have to turn up for (learning a dance routine for instance) so you can’t skip a single week. That makes me happy 8D Better than going to a gym because you have the option of not turning up. You waste your money though lol.

Let’s do it!

I’ve been meaning to do it for a while, but never did because I didn’t want to go alone to a beginner’s class *facepalms*. My friend from uni occasionally does dance lessons, but she goes to a different one to the one I’ve been considering. So yes, the more the merrier? I really want to nail this this winter holidays.

Gumtree

I browse on Gumtree as another site that I must go onto each day nowadays. If I find something good I will tweet about it, just in case if there was anything that you possibly were looking for. I only tweet things that I think are worthy of buying in terms of price. For instance, I saw a Holga 120 for $75, which is sort of alright, but I didn’t tweet it because it’s 2nd hand and you can get a brand new one for cheaper online. Just things like that.

I really need to sell my oversized pants. Holidays Dx Guh.

Harikin!

Thanks to Ramille who dropped off 3 rolls of film to me the other day

Still feeling a bit jipped because they forced me to take their moolah for my film >:\ I’m SO GONNA SNEAK THAT BACK INTO C’S SPEEDY!

Unfortunately the weather has been sucky so I haven’t managed to get any great shots. If they were any shots they’d be rays of light poking through the clouds or maybe a really bad looking sunset lololol. Anyway, I’ve taken 3 shots so far – 2 of sky and one indoor shot (just to see the lighting conditions). I’ve tried to double expose the photos, but I don’t think it worked because it didn’t click lolol. I think it will take a while for me to know how to.

Otherwise the manual camera thing is all smooth sailing. I’ve never owned a manual film camera before, so it was interesting. The instructions were fairly easy to follow. I’m more amazed that when I turn the film thingy the turning thing knows when to stop! I sound like such a n00b.

Only thing – when I get the film developed I think I’ll just get them printed as well, photographic prints. I don’t trust their scans because they will scan at a low resolution. I’d probably get better quality scans if I scan it myself. I’ll ask them and see how they scan their photos I suppose. Take it as it comes >:3

 I’ll blog about it when I get my first roll done. It’ll be full of pics. YEY 8D

—-

Alright, concentration is dropping. It’s hooping time. Then it’ll be lunch and hardcore concentration on design presentation. I can do this! See you all for my next procrastination post Oh – PS: will definitely be doing nails of the week again this weekend. I think.

Mazeltov for for for~ the week~

Superstitious: ‘of’ and ‘for’ make a difference

As I jokingly wrote last week, I should change the Mazeltov FOR the week ahead rather than restrospectively trying to impose luck on the week that already happened. Possibly it worked, my friends. Or not so friends. I kid – sort of lol.

And the weight is…

So a little recap on last week’s episode.

I lost 0.8kg, got sick, then lost another 0.3kg. After the recovery I promptly gained the 0.3kg last week, which ended up nulling that 0.3kg.

Today I stepped on the scales and I *drumroll*….

…. lost an entire kilo.

D:

Therefore so far I have lost a grand total of 3.5kg since the 28th March 2010. That’s almost 2 months.

I know it’s a bit slow, but hey, it’s gradual weight loss and it will stay off.

If you check my diet diary I lost about 1.7kg the first month, so I’m fairly close to losing 1.7kg/ month without fail. That’s looking good to me. Extra bonus of an extra 100g too!

(Don’t forget that I weigh myself every Monday morning, and I haven’t cut my hair recently, so my hair has been adding more weight while I’m losing weight overall. Means I probably lost more than 1kg methinks.)

My BMI last week was 21. It has now dipped to 20.8. Good job! It’s getting back to the safe zone again.

What I did the past week:I didn’t hula hoop for 3 days the past week, which makes it seem strange I lost so much. Actually though, I’ve been sleeping at around 2am for the past 3-4 nights. Friday I skipped lunch and had a very small dinner. On Saturday I was running around the city like mad (not much food intake either).

Every time I hoop it’s 1hour non stop. It has been the case for the past month+. Please assume this is the same unless I state that I have made changes to my routine

I am a fairly lazy exerciser if you think of how many hours I spend sitting at a computer. I do sit down and watch tv. I’m not particularly active – but I guess it’s working!

Notes:

I wake up in the mornings and even if I didn’t hula hoop the day before my stomach is relatively flat (by that I mean I still have a stomach sticking out but nowhere near as big as it was 2 months ago) and my waist wouldn’t have grown much larger. I realised a big reason why my stomach sticks out (it always has since I was a kid) was because I noticed my back curves a lot where my waist is. So that’s how the stomach gets pushed out. Never fear, as long as it’s not major love handle grippage – I’ve lost about 80% of love handle and that feels good.

The waist is the same as last week – and I measured my legs again. Funnily enough the thighs were now measuring back at 50cm, but the calves were 34cm. At the time when I wrote the SNSD leg exercise thing, my calves were 32cm, and last week I measured them at like 38cm. So double ewe tee eff. I think it’s just water content bouncing around.

And if this 1.7kg/month thing is REAL, then I can nail my 5kg target weight loss by the end of next month. DONE DEAL. Only 3 months to reach a resolution I kept putting off for over 5 years?! CRAZY – I would have done it earlier if I had know it was that easy! At the end of the 3 weeks/ 5kg target that’s when I am supposed to start my gym/ cardio workouts too. It’ll be interesting to see how that’d go down. Since I doubt I’d be happy with just a 5kg loss I’m going to do the full 10. But I’ll concentrate on the 5 first. I don’t care if a BMI of 18 is borderline underweight. As long as I’m fit that’s all I care about.

Will you stop after losing 5kg?

Nah. Exercise wasn’t really just to lose weight, it’s now been incorporated into my lifestyle. Hooping while I watch Good News Week or glee is an essential part of my daily life now, and it makes me feel somewhat more normal than sitting at a computer hopelessly doing work and ending up on Youtube (or somewhere else because my bandwidth doesn’t allow me to Youtube too much). I noticeably find my metabolism much better and I’m less sluggish.

While I’m quite happy with the results, I can’t say much until I actually hit my target weight loss. There are still things I want to improve – although I’m slimmer and noticeably more agile, I don’t particularly think my body is toned. My arms and legs definitely need toning, and I want to up my stamina (I get breathless fairly easily – it’s also due to bad lungs – damn asthma). I was always paranoid if I ever was chased by someone or something down a street – I don’t think I would be able to outrun them. So I need that extra zing of fitness in my lifestyle.

What I am going to do:

Continue as usual. Hoop as many days possible. Biggest concern is that I will be sitting here for this week because of a submission. Even bigger concern is the risk of falling sick again. That week when I lost 0.8kg really made me vulnerable, and I don’t want that to happen again. I’ll be a tank this week and scull as much fluid as I possibly can.

Heh, forget about that Cabi vid, let me feed you some After School giddiness instead:

WOOT UEE – envious of her long legs. She’s so thin! Not putting Gahee up because she’s too perfect

She’s definitely been working those legs. They are getting so slim – as if they weren’t toned to begin with – now it’s taken up another level. And because she’s quite modest from a video I saw (though possibly a bit outdated), she noted that she still had a lot of work to do – damn, I’d kill to have what she had BEFORE let alone her legs now – seriously, I think Kpop is really making me have self esteem issues OTL But toning and exercise is good, non?

Hotness x 8. Too bad SNSD has nine people, so they’d be x9, but After School > SNSD for me ANY DAY. But if After School gets 2 extra members (since their maximum is like 10), then it’d be hotness x 10 – SNAPPED! I’d totally buy an After School album, but definitely not an SNSD one. Most probably because everyone has a girl crush on Park Gahee, and I’m secretly a UEE fangirl.
Img src (both images): http://yeinjee.com/2010/after-school-bang-photoshoot/

Motivated? More like slapped down with burden over purdy bodies. But yes, it will motivate me. Damn it, After School needs to come out with a Cabi video too! *rawrs* I’d'do 2 hours exercise per day if they did.

And that’s it folks!

I actually left this post to add more stuff on to write for more than 2 hours but I decided that I had nothing else to write about, considering that (1) my bow project fizzled (2) I already blogged about everything else in the previous few days.

Have a glorious week ahead, and I’ll be back with some eye pokey content for you all in maybe 5 days’ time!

SEE Y’ALL!

Thanks Kpop for making us all have self esteem issues

Artistic surprise

Well, again a bit slow because I should have posted this up earlier, but it works now that I can do it in one go. YAY!

Both girls are lovely and have a tradition for making art for friends for their birthdays I feel super slack and l know I’m capable of returning the favour but I never do

Visit Kitten at http://kitten.minitokyo.net

Yeah well I added the bigass sig – as you can see her sig was really small in the lower right hand corner. I downsized it anyway, but I had to plaster a sig onto it anyway just in case I suppose. She drew and coloured it herself! Super big dual screen wallpapaer – thanks! <3

Woke up this morning to find this goodie in my email inbox:

I’m not too sure how to credit this one to be completely honest lol, but I credit it to Viv Miu for the lulz Thanks a lot girl!

I’m assuming that she made this using a digital graphics tablet on photoshop. Girl, without fail each year you send me an artwork – I feel uber bad x 50000000. I need to draw something for you one day D:

So my birthdays don’t really suck all that bad lol. It’s the friends who make it all better!

Cabi – sounds like Calbee the chip brand, but no, this is a boot camp.

Img src: http://www.orientalmart.co.uk/images/products_sml/hotcorn.jpg
Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calbee

Definitely no to Calbee. I used to eat the above chips all the time (by this I mean a packet a week for maybe 6 packets and this was 2 years ago) because they are made of pure awesome. Corn chips BAKED in vegetable oil (yes not fried but BAKED) and covered in a red spicy chilli powder. YUM.

But I quit those a while ago. Definitely not eating these any time soon due to exercise/ diet, and especially not if I want to look hot like the following girls (and guys) in the video below.

Damn you Yuri for getting a hot oil body rub from Khun. Damn!

Yeah, I know, I’m late on the bandwagon, but only because I’m so not into SNSD and I only like Khun from 2PM. Personally, I think SNSD is overhyped – but that’s just me. I don’t care for their music, but I do agree they make fantastic idols – which is, after all, their profession.

What can I say about the video? Cleavage, milky skin, not a trace of cellulite or stretch marks anywhere.

I give them credit for promoting a HEALTHY body rather than a thin body, but argh – jealousy succumbs. The video clip is well and truly to make girls envy and want a body like that. Including myself of course.

This is an inspirational video for anyone who’s looking to keep fit or to work to get fitter. Aside from that, I can’t really say much other than if you want to go to Cabi,  you need to stop eating Calbee.

Lol? Thought not ._.

—-

And now in an effort to help me concentrate (it’s freezing cold and still raining) I shall be hooping twice today. Damn this Cabi video. Makes me feel lazy for not doing exercise these past few days. If it’s a good excuse, I’ve been busy! And yesterday I did a significant amount of haulage and running around in the city. Strangely enough though, my body did not ache this morning. Perhaps it just wasn’t enough. But then again, who knows?

Shiny birthday surprises. Super trippy.

Today I started off semi-early. The sky was grey and the sky was throwing bucket loads of rain down. Welcome to Sydney!

Anyway, I woke up and as soon as the sky cleared my mum and I headed out because she needed to do her fortnightly groceries, and I needed to pick up some card for design. As I was getting back, there was a bit of an accident – I think a bus driver got hit (there was blood on his face), and two police vans and the state transit were there.

Then at around 3pm R texts me about dropping off my present off – and I then said I’d escape from home so they couldn’t ever be able to deliver it. And so that’s when I actually did go to the city as planned, but got on the wrong bus and had to get from Chinatown all the way to near Martin Place D: Turns out they were at Louis Vuitton and already made a purchase ;x

By the way, “trippy” is my new catch word. Credits to whoever I leeched that word off lol.

Harikin – OMG!

On the other hand, Ramille got me a present – and it’s super trippy!

Introducing eye blinding candy:

Love! It’s so trippy, like, something you’d see in a Big Bang video clip!

Learn more about this camera at www.cameraheadz.com

Forget the white slim angels or black slim devils – psh, get something trippy like a Harikin GOLD slim instead!

For those who don’t really know what these are or heard about it but don’t really know what they’re for, these are a series of small, slim, lightweight wide angle lens lomography cameras. If you google or something, they produce amazing shots. Best part? No battery required. HELLS YEAH. I will never use my SLR because it actually involves me actively finding a lithium battery to suit the SLR. I can’t ever be bothered doing that. I’m just not too sure where they develop film in the city. According to Ramille they do it in the city, but I’m not sure D: If anyone knows exactly where, give me a shout. If there is indeed easy photo developing in the city – YES! I’ll abuse this little thing until it’s gone and no longer shiny!

Apparently the story behind getting this camera was a few weeks back when I saw the shop window and said “OMG I WANT THE GOLD ONE!”

GOLD IS TRIPPY DUDE. TRIPPY AS!

Plus it came in this cute bag with a pink smiling rabbit saying “Because I want to see your face with a smile” – nawwww! <3

Gucci ban. Seriously.

To follow on with the high roller tradition, we drove to the Rocks and then badda boom. Gucci.

I’m pissed now because it’s on sale on the freaking US website but I did not get a single dollar off this thing. But the good thing is that it’s recent-ish!

I don’t ever remember seeing these on display, and well, let’s just say that it was hidden in a cabinet. C has a Speedy, so I will get a Boston, just like how my wishlist always had it. Just what it always said. CAN TICK OFF NAO!

This bag is from the Gucci Spring/ Summer 2010 collection.

Still very new.

Despite the questions other people ask me like “isn’t it a bit shiny?” and also “I feel like the metallic might rub off” I can say it’s not actually that shiny and it will never rub off due to how it’s made. I also read a review of this bag (tested at the store) and I will highly disagree with spending money on something more toned down and timeless.

This bag, that is, the Boston bag, is timeless.

If I was going to buy a Boston bag and it just happened to look like ”just another Gucci Boston” then what’s the point of spending the money? Why not get something unique, of a particular awesome colour that few people even have, and make a statement – repeat – with the same amount of money? Why can’t I have a timeless classic that actually says something about myself rather than look like others? Even though this is a really unconventional type of Boston in terms of its colour, its fabric is a breakthrough. It’s waterproof, the sheen is nice, the texture feels good (sturdy, almost mesh like) and it’s low maintenance. In fact, this is probably the first line of bags using this type of fabric and this is easier to clean than the coated canvas ones.

The shiny brown/bronze fabric is comparable, but definitely different in texture and innovation (not even as shiny as that). Don’t forget, silver jewellery goes with any great outfit – why not a silver bag? The Louis Vuitton Vernis collection and recent years of patent leather has proven that shiny is here to stay. In fact, this one is rather toned down since it’s not shiny – it’s more like a brushed metal finish so it’s less eye pokey.

It was either this or a grey handle, grey waterproof coated canvas Boston. I really quite liked it, but apart from the fact the size was smaller than what I was hoping for (despite the extra long strap), I thought the proportions were awkward and I didn’t like the bag looking like a lump of grey. Also the price tag didn’t really seem all that attractive, since in my eyes it didn’t really look that good on me. This on the other hand is much more hip and it brings up the mood or atmosphere better because there’s just that X factor that makes it pop.

Despite having received comments by a particular friend saying that “you should put it on a pedestal and put it on display to look at” (which I assume is a good thing, though it leaves a question mark for practicality – as usual and expected from him – though he only saw the website image as posted above to which he replied “it might look better in real life” and I assure you, it really does), I will use it. Honestly speaking, people use Vernis bags, Mirroir bags and patent things. I’ve seen all sorts of weird bags – shiny, sequined – the lot. This by far is not an original concept, but the fabric sure is quite something remarkable.

In fact, I liked this bag so much I started using it about 30mins after I bought it – how’s THAT for dedication?

In my eyes this is a beautiful bag. Good enough for a pedestal, apparently. It’s a joy to look at and use, it feels lovely to the touch, the handles are nice and stiff, there’s a beautiful zipped up compartment inside and the lovely smell of new bag smell is there.  It’s sturdy, a nice bag regardless of colours (due to its nice proportions and handle extensions to go under the bag) and believe it or not, this WILL go with a lot of outfits. It’s like a vernis without being too shiny.

To be honest I’m really quite sick of the brown Gucci bag. Brown brown brown. I’m glad that Gucci has responded to the other recent collections – such as the LV Mirroir (not recent, but sought after) and the metallic Dior collection. Though nowhere as shiny, it still is a nice bag.

What happens if you buy a designer good and someone makes a comment about it that makes you sad?

Though slightly off tangent, I’m well aware that this has happened to everyone before – not just about designer goods, but just things you bought in general.

My advice is that if you hit a negative comment about a purchase, don’t dwell on it. You made the choice to spend the money and if you were happy while spending it, don’t doubt yourself. Other people have little right to judge about what you buy especially if they haven’t used it or seen it in person (depending on the situation).

For instance, this bag is my personal birthday gift to myself, and I like it. I tried it on and I think it looked good even with my damp oversized Zipia jacket and ankle laced up boots. It’s a designed item so therefore it must have been designed in this way for a reason. There’s nothing elaborate about this bag, the only thing that sets it apart is its colour, but it’s not even as shiny as what people make it out to be. Gosh, this is NOTHING compared to the LV Mirroir – nature has proven that shiny things will attract and always be in fashion. Why else do you think that Apple iPhones are so popular? Because they have a shiny silver back – it’s iconic, stylish, low maintenance and above all SHINY.

So don’t doubt yourself.

If I get any negative comments about this bag they won’t see the light of day. I spent my money pretty well on this bag I think, and it’s unique. If anything, I have this awesome bag – and you don’t. Hahaha jk – but seriously, this is my own purchase.

Now I really need a job. I’ve spent way too much lately and unfortunately, I don’t have much income coming in at all. My goal of saving up $2000 for this year has now more likely become save $5000 this year – it really was having my laptop stolen. That really hurt my savings the most. I mean, replacing something I had that was in good working condition? Wtf.

Now the more I look at this bag the more normal it looks. I remember when those silky shiny monogram fabrics came out I really hated them. It’s a bit like the same right now, but I started liking them from the start. Dude, it looks so normal all these random comments have gotten my mind off track. Sorry for being unique D:

Seriously, I highly recommend this bag and collection. It will be timeless despite what other people have said and the best part is having close to nobody having the same one as you. That pwns.

On the other hand, I’m not walking into Gucci any time soon. Though honestly speaking I really want a smaller wallet (half the size of my envelope one) because I want to use it on “lighter” days. I might not buy a Gucci one though, but I’ll see when the time comes. First I need to start EARNING/ SAVING MONEY before I think about designer goods again. I’m done. 6 Gucci items in the house within a span of less than a year. Not good.

Crap, and maybe another belt. *Facepalm* – if I keep losing weight at this rate, I demand I get myself another belt.

Yumei @ Capitol Square

Spicy Kaisen Chirashi. $14.50. Though once again I lose to Ramille when it comes to the bill. DEFINITELY SHOUTING YOU GUYS BULGOGI DAMN IT.  But then again, it will be C’s birthday at the end of the year – ah~ 2x presents for you guys in a year
Somehow I also love the irony how the sign says “Japanese restaurant” and under that there’s an LED screen saying “Japanese restaurant”. Uhh - why?

Also came with a bowl of miso soup, which I drank first.

I tipped all the spicy sauce in which wasn’t very smart and for some reason there was solid sugar at the bottom of the bowl. The rice was also seasoned with vinegar which made it doubly confusing. I think it was for those people who didn’t want the spicy sauce and to still have flavoured rice – or they used the rice from sushi. Hmm. Needless to say I didn’t finish the rice, and the bowl was much more shallower than expected. A lot of rice still.

Too many onions and ginger (took that aside) and I didn’t eat the lone prawn since I’m allergic to them. The appetiser which was a pumpkin soupey thing with crunchy bits in it was quite nice though (you can see it empty on the top left of the photo). 

Overall to be honest I would have preferred eating a sashimi salad from ROLL+ or even the smoked salmon salad from mizuya. I just couldn’t eat so much rice – especially since it was vinegared and sugared too. They did have something similar salad-ey on the menu but from the image, I suspect it would have been quite small. Then again, I wouldn’t know. Yumei wasn’t bad at all. It’s not a bad restaurant. The prices are a little on the high side though, but what do you expect? You’re eating at Capitol Square.

—-

I had a fun day! But an expensive one. I went out to the city to originally buy $20 worth of material for making bows. Not only did that not happen, I make a purchase way too many times more than what I was expecting to spend. My designer days are over for the meantime. I’ll return back to them once I get a job. First paycheck – you know where that’s going. DAYUM 8D

PS: Do I really take jokes too far? I can’t remember the final joke I said in the car but apparently it was bad. Lol.

Until next blog!

PPS: I really won’t be on much blogging because I have an assessment this Friday. I’ll be back definitely on Monday though for the weighing Don’t be too hopeful though – I didn’t hoop for the past 3 nights due to just exhaustion. Btw I should be in bed. 1:07am. EEKS.

Wiser? Better with age? How about “just got old(er)” ;)

I got a lot of birthday wishes with comments in regards to the weather lol – thanks everyone I’ll reply them bit by bit after today I guess.

Plans for today and the nice weather? No rain means I can go buy cardboard for design and making models. I have a lecture still at 5pm so unfortunately there’s no fun in it for me today. I don’t really like eating cake so there will be no cake, and well – it’s just like any other ordinary day I suppose

DIY Bow #2

Seriously, the word “Christmas” in the top left hand corner was a complete coincidence. I was jotting down notes for the flyer C asked me to design

Photograph that captures the glittery essence quite well~

I think until the 30th May I’ll try to make a bow a day (or a hair accessory per day). I have no idea what I’ll do with these because I won’t really wear them, but if you have any suggestions, let me know.

The red bow again was made of stuff I found around the house. The ironic thing is that I don’t really like red all that much, yet I suspect that this bow is nicer than the white one, since it looks like something generic you’d find at the shops. Though I’m going to be all haughty and say this is better quality than the stuff you find in a shop, because I made it and QC’d it lol. You’d be surprised how much excess glue and stuff there is with the stuff you find in a shop. But anyway -

What I used:

• 2x strips of red felt (plus one extra for the middle strip)
• 2x Christmas ribbon from a past present we got maybe over 10 years ago (lolz)
• 7x rhinestones (sewn)

What can I say? I always handsew my stuff. If I head out to the city this weekend I’m going to see if there are any satin bits I can buy to make more of these (and trust me I have a LOT of variations in my head I’d love to make – like super crazy ones too). It’ll be my DIY project for May. They all have new bobby bins attached and I won’t be using them @_@ You bet I won’t. Unless it’s a photoshoot. Or a party. Lol.

But you just wait and see – on the weekend sometime – a REALLY COOL ONE. I can think of 2 really awesome ones. Unfortunately I will definitely need to get a move on with design *cries*

—-

Anyway today is just yet another ordinary day. My jeans are very loose. I can’t believe I bought like 7 pairs of Sass and Bide jeans and now they don’t even fit me! I better try on the other size ones I thought were too tight, they might actually have a looser fit that before. I might dig it out soon and wear a new pair for today.

And that’s that! Thanks everyone! I’ll reply you all tonight or tomorrow depending on how I’m going. Le screwed to the max! I wish I had Misa’s little helper to help me with design.

Toodles! I’ll be back another day

DIY Bow

I was really itching to make a badge or a bow because I had a necklace chain that was rusting and not being put to use. I wasn’t really being too productive either, so I decided to make this.

Trust me it looks a lot better in real life, considering that this photo was taken by a phone camera and also during night time. For Samsung phone users – want to beat that yellow glow during night time due to indoor lighting? Set the scene to candlelight – it’ll wash all the yellow/orangey tones white – which is what it should be

What I used:

• 2x White felt (makes it stiff if you use two sheets)
• 1x Glittery silver ribbon I got from an old present (it was used to tie up a candle, but the candle didn’t even work – lit it and it never burned, so I’ll throw it out some time)
• 4x rhinestones (sewn)
• 1x rusting 925 16″ chain with bean pendant (authenticity unknown)

TIP: If you can find silk or satin, use that instead please – felt is not the best material to use to make a hair or brooch bow!

I bought the necklace I think about 2.5 years ago from soompi because something possessed me to do it. It appears to be an Elsa Piretti bean pendant on chain. I doubt it’s really Tiffany and Co (but I’ll never know since all I own is a pair of earrings that I bought last year from the store so I’m no expert- but those are easily polished, whereas this was a bitch to clean, so I’m assuming this isn’t real – but hey-) but I know it’s 925 because it tarnished. Also it’s because my earrings came with an engraved serial number – whereas this one didn’t. Lolz. I just helped some girl on soompi out by helping her clear her unwanted gifts – but it’s okay, that was before I was buying stuff and thinking about it >_> 

I can’t ever wear it as a necklace because it’s too short to be one (not to mention I will not be spotted wearing a knockoff D: But I guess it’s okay if I use it to make something with it), and I won’t ever have a use for it (ie. giving it away) because it is 2nd hand to begin with. Probably quite an expensive chain to use for an accessory lol. But I couldn’t think of any other use I could possibly use it for without it looking tacky.

This photo shoes the colours more closely along with the pretty glitter ribbon. Unfortunately I can’t get the etching clear with the darned mobile phone (auto focus). Trust me it looks really similar to the actual engraving, just this photo makes it look bad D:

Silly me though I put the engravings so it faces the back rather than out when the bow is worn. Oh well, it was meant to be then lol – people will just think it’s a cool bean

The best thing? I can take the bow apart and I’m still left with a necklace! HAR HAR!

I’ll definitely be making more badges and stuff when the holidays come.