chervalier

hola!! =)) Sorry for the non-bloggage for like, EVER. I’ve been busy and lazy as usual.. Feb was a totally crazy time for me, every single weekend was booked.. And it’s starting to seem like March is just going to be more of the same..

Just a quick reminder to self about March:

1) Meet Ann! (first weekend for coffee meetup with S?)

2) 12th dinner with tnt

3) 13th- MJ with girls and check if any prior apptmts

4) first weekend with yarn?

5) 27th with sgbloggers

6) 26th play

Yea that’s all so far. Mannn, working really destroys my ability to hang out during weekdays.. I did meet up with val yesterday though and have discovered that Raffles City is a pretty awesome place to shop.. heh. I’ve also discovered that shopping alone is detrimental to the health of my bank account.. ><

Aaaanyhoo, this blog entry is supposed to be a nice meaty satisfying one for those of you who prefer my blog entries..

Most of you should know I’m Catholic and that my belief system is pretty much shaped by Catholic values and principles. Well, most of it, at least. I realized lately that I have an underlying belief that governs my whole outlook on life and yea, i’m about to share it! lol.

Basically, I feel that our life and everything we worry/care about can be classified into a few basic categories. They are

• Family
• Health
• Love
• Work
• Friends
• Money
• Spirit /Faith (in other words, religion)

Now, the basic principle to life relating to the above is this:

Balance.

Yup! Simple huh? Basically, everything will balance out. Religiously, I’d say I believe this because I believe God is fair. You could also see it in a very Zen-manner and believe in the ultimate balance of the universe.

What this balance is referring to is that everything is fairly allocated. For example, if you are doing poorly at work and thus also have money problems, then you probably have love, friends and family who care for you and are probably generally healthy and spiritually sound too. Alternatively if you excel at work, have lots of money, and have great friends and family, then you might just be a bit more prone to illness, or maybe not have a good foundation faith-wise.

---

So here’s some real-life updating from me that you rarely get on this blog. Everytime I pray (every night and every week at church), I kinda do a mental stock check of all these areas in life and pray that everything’s alright with all of them. However, I know there has to be balance and that something has to lose out somewhere.. Now for me, the most important things are Family and Health. These 2 I will never compromise on. The rest are very important too but I can compromise on those..

I’m very fortunate to be blessed with good things on most of my “areas”.. I have a wonderful family and mostly we have peace (though I guess you can say my bad relationship with my brother is a dip in the see-saw here).. I have AWESOME friends, money isn’t too big a problem, I’m a normal, mostly healthy person and I’m spiritually sound.. So yea, it seems everything’s up up up.. So a while ago, I was sorta taking stock and really praying very hard about the last 2 categories (work had not happened yet and up till then it had been “school”.. love was… not too good. a dip for sure)..

Let’s just say I kinda prayed for 2 things that were sort of happening around the same period. And what ended up happening was this: God gave me a GREAT job and decided to even things out by giving me a $%^&#craphole of a love life..

I mean when I look back on it.. I know how relieved I was when I got the job I wanted. At that precise moment I knew that I would have been a lot more devastated if I had gotten the uh relationship-related thing and lost out on the job than if i had gotten the job and lost out on the relationship-related thing. I think I even told some people this exact same sentiment right at that moment.

And honestly, my job has got to be God-given because it’s just awesome. I’m surrounded by amazing people, learning lots of things, can get to and from work very conveniently… From the bottom of my heart I know it was in His plan (ok if i’m coming across too religious well, I’m sort of sorry but seriously, you don’t understand the whole story) and that the long wait was worth it because I feel truly blessed with a great job. When I hear about some other horror stories of first jobs, I can’t help but give thanks.

About the shitfest that is my love life… I don’t know if I can do without one (because it seems like to even out the balance of all the categories I need to have a shitty or no love life) but I know now that if/when it happens, it’s going to be amazing. Like my job. And I really believe it because I know my next relationship will probably be IT, coz I’m *cough* such an accomodating and wonderful person. lol. No seriously though. I don’t foresee myself getting into any arguments or anything because i honestly think good communication can resolve most problems.

Anyways, we shall not talk about this anymore lol. What do you think? Agree with my Grand Theory?? Love the entry? haha. Love y’all. Will blog about the amazing mahjong night with my girls Michelle Siying and Edna soon! Till then, CIAOOO

Popularity: 9% [?]

HOLA! =)

Long time no blog! I know some of you missed me, heh. Anyhoo, we’ll see what kinda reaction this entry gets because I’m not gonna waste time BLOGGING if Vlogging is way more popular (and I personally prefer vlogging to blogging lol).. Yea.. I actually have another video ready for uploadage but I thought I’d appease those who prefer Blogs before I post yet another vlog entry..

On a side note, some of you can actually Subscribe to me on Youtube if you have Youtube accounts.. I sometimes discreetly post videos up there that I don’t really publicize heh. You can also see videos I’ve favorited and feel free to enjoy my meticulously-put-together playlists!

Heh. Alright, back to the topic of this blog! So really long ago, I wanted to share what it’s like to be a WRUB DJ! A few of you know this, I was a student DJ back in the day (ahem) when I was at UB (University at Buffalo, State University of New York).. It was honestly one of the best things I’d ever done..

So the other day I was just going through my old recordings of my show - the GQ Show.. And I felt very nostalgic.. So I thought I’d share what the process is like for each show =)

BEFORE EACH SHOW

Since the GQ Show is a Gossip-oriented show, I read up on all the gossip that happened in the days before the show and pick out interesting things that I want to talk about.. My pet issue during that time was the Brangelina-JAnistin drama so I more or less always found a way to squeeze that topic in.. =)

I also have to prepare a playlist on my Ipod of all the songs I wanted to play.. I’d do it in sets of 3 -1:

1. First song would be the “background music” track for a segment of talking – otherwise known as a Mic Break.
2. Song to play
3. Song to play

After 2 songs, I’d have to play a “cart”, which is better known as commercials, from the computer in the booth.. Then I play a piece from “rotation” – a set of music we have to choose from to play each hour.. So I’d line up a song after that.. And then repeat =) It eventually ends up in the first song being background music, then 3 songs, then background music, then 3 songs etc…

So generally I’d have about 5 sections of 3-1 per 1.5hr show.. Yep. Once I’ve prepared the playlist, I write down all the songs on a notepad so that it’s easier for me to announce the songs during each mic break..

DURING THE SHOW

1) Plug in Ipod and headphones

2) Using computer, play show intro cart (opening song for the show)

3) Play Ipod (background music), make sure sound volume is just right (see soundboard below! =)) and speak!

4) After talking and introducing upcoming songs, play songs.

5) Prepare cart to play and rotation pieces. Pick rotation pieces from CD wall..

6) Play cart followed by rotation piece.

7) Play remaining song.

8 ) Go to mic break with background music playing (adjust volume, etc)

9) Talk Gossip. If necessary, hold/host contest and give away prizes. Promo upcoming events =)

10) Repeat! =))

AFTER THE SHOW

Update show log every show. =)

Yup, that’s more or less it. We also have fun events like WRUB Game Nights and WRUB Day and TOP40 day =) Those events are super fun and plus the people were awesome, which made everything even more fun. Gah I miss DJ-ing!! Heh.

Ohwells. I hope you guys have been enlightened and entertained by this entry hehe. Know me better now? =) Love y’all, tc and ciao!! =))

Popularity: 11% [?]

happy birthday to my darling nicole.. first movie with my darling ann.. and general embarassment of myself..

watch it!

Yea.. count the number of times I said yea in this video and the one before this (both part 1 and 2 combined) and comment! haha

That’s all for now. Have a blog entry of sorts coming up =) Ciao all~

Popularity: 15% [?]

like i’ve warned y’all.. this is gonna be a semi-emo post!

i’ve kinda wanted to post this for some time coz i realized something pretty funky. uh yea. but never really had the time to (between all the vlogging and panicking for work) so I kinda have an hour of free time right now and decided to use this time to blog!

on my way here (i’m at my aunt’s salon), I stupidly cried again coz my parents were quarreling (again) thanks to some stupid logistics issue that i don’t even want to talk about right now.. ugh. and so I was feeling kinda down when I got here but i cheered up immediately at the sight of the ubercute YANGSTER in his mom’s office playing on the computer =)

seriously all it takes is a big hug and an “I love you” from that boy and I feel tonnes better.

but anyhoo, that bit about crying was exactly what i wanted to blog about. I’ve been crazily emotional lately and I don’t know why! Seriously, I’ve been crying at the slightest trigger. I think something’s really wrong with my hormones.

I’ve cried more this December 2009 (and whatever days of January 2010 so far) than I’ve cried in the whole of 2009 put together. I would have said it’s the most I’ve cried in 3 years but I have to take into account the large amounts of crying I did in 2008 – what with leaving Singapore for the States and then leaving the States for Singapore.. LOL.

And this is the thing: I’m not such a weak person. At least, I don’t believe I am. I’m not the kind of person who cries at everything (movies and tv shows aside because ok I’ll admit I cry super easily at those). And I’m seriously despising myself right now for crying so much. It’s like I’m on emotional tenterhooks and it’s annoying.

When the first (what i call) “stupid crying for no reason” incident occured, I put it down to hormonal imbalance because I was pre-menstrual. It was mid-December and I was flying off to Penang but well, some of my stuff (basically facial foam and vaseline) were confiscated, leading to my mom sort-of telling me off and lots of unnecessary humiliation. So for no reason the tears started flowing and then the sobs followed. (EMBARASSING. At one point I was shaking my head at myself wondering what on earth I was crying about. )

From then on it was as if the tap was not closed tightly enough and the pipes were leaking or something. I’d cry at almost anything. It’s very retarded, really.

Another time when I cried without being able to control it was on the way to the hospital and in the hospital when they were taking my blood. I cried all the way from the time they mentioned “blood test” till I was taking my x-ray (about a whole half hour to 45mins.. ><) WHY AM I SUCH A WEAKLING omg.

Of course, there were more incidents but those were a bit more reasonable (as in I understand why I was crying lol).. Yea..

I’ve since come to a conclusion about all this retarded crying. It’s because I’ve stopped doing something I used to do on a daily basis. I’ve stopped watching comedies on a daily basis. Lol. My life everyday used to consist of at least 2 hours of watching Friends / South Park / Family Guy / the Simpsons / Ellen / etc online.. For some reason I stopped doing that and I think it’s causing some kind of deficit in my body.

Since I don’t want to be a blubbering mess all the time, I’m gonna go back to devoting 2hrs a day to watching comedies and cartoons. And of course, I’ve found vlogging to be pretty awesome in engaging my attention so yea.

What other methods do you suggest? =)

PS: The yangster is singing Fireflies by Owl City non-stop right now. Off-key and the lyrics are totally wrong. But he warms my heart and he’s cuddly =) I love how stealing some family time (extended family with my cuzzies, I mean) always makes me feel better no matter what.

Till the next time, toodles~

Popularity: 14% [?]

HUZZAH

my vlog got banned in France! LOL. So I can’t embed it in here.. Here’s the link. Go see it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCVJtBCwyyM

Lol it’s not like revolutionary or anything.. I just used a part of a song as background music and some people laid a content claim to it so yea… BANNED IN FRANCE. I am oddly proud of that, like it’s some kinda achievement. Now I know how Peter Chao must feel.

And part 2 (yes it’s THAT long again) wasn’t banned so I can embed it here haha

Ok the singing bit was crap coz my pronunciation of the French is pretty shit.. And my face is shit flabby too so you should just avert your eyes at that part. It’ll do you good.

On a side note, my face appears three times in this quarter’s issue of The Carpenter (my church newsletter) so I’m gonna get even more famous than I already am at church. Totallyyy.. Haha j/k la.

I promised a blog entry and you’re gonna get it.. Soon.. I’m just finding the time for it. Heh. Prolly later coz I’ll be bored shitless for about an hour and a half so I’ll blog then. Oh and can someone tell me a good way of backing up all my blog entries? I don’t wanna go save all the documents or go to each entry and savepageas so yea.. Some good program to do it? =)

That’s all for now, toodles guys!

Popularity: 13% [?]

yea people I vlogged again! here it is..

yea apparently you guys like me vlogging.. yea.. I’m in the process of making a video with the outtakes from the various attempts at making this particular vlog post (with one where i show you my feet) so stay tuned for that.. In the meantime, I have pictures..

Yea it wasn’t much fun. Alright, comments appreciated as usual. I’m right now busy editing a video to put up for you guys. Haha. I’m so dedicated. Alrighty take care all, and don’t let any bugs bite ya! <3

Popularity: 14% [?]

lazy to blog properly.. And have been influenced by Natalie Tran (who is awesome)..

Watch:

Apologies for looking so hideous! haha. Hope you guys liked it. Comments appreciated lovies! =)

Popularity: 15% [?]

so this post is gonna be all about different levels of attraction to people.. I’ve wanted to post about this for awhile since, well, it’s something that I’ve had to explain to quite some of my friends..

See I’m the kind of person who likes people on a varying level of degrees.. Much like most people, actually. We have stages/phases of Liking, as I’d like to call it.. And different people have different definitions for the same “stage” .. For instance, a crush is defined by some of my friends as much less serious than I define it.. So when my friends ask if I have a crush on someone, I say “NOOOOO” vehemently and they’re taken aback.. Heh.

So here’s my take on the different Stages of Liking (hereby titled SOL)

Starting from the least serious:

STAGE ZERO

Stage 0) Just to be meticulously accurate, stage 0 is apathy. Defined by a total lack of attraction or dislike towards a person. Negative stages will reflect the exact same amount of feeling toward a person, only the emotion is opposite (negative.. like dislike or hatred)

STAGE ONE

Stage 1) I call stage one Agreement. It’s when you agree/acknowledge/admit that this person is attractive, but either you don’t like his/her character at all or you don’t know him/her well enough. You just think that you could see what someone else sees in the person.

STAGE TWO

Stage 2) Two is Attraction. When you feel that a person is good-looking/hot and would do the person. This is different from Stage 1 in that you don’t agree with general opinion (which is passive) but you actively find the person attractive. It’s still on a very low level though, and you still might not know this person well at all. However, you definitely don’t hate this person’s character.

STAGE THREE

Stage 3) This is the subjective/messy part where people might not agree. Most people put “crush” here but I’d put Appreciation as stage 3. Appreciation happens when you start to appreciate the person for his/her character and enjoy hanging out with him/her. You could even start imagining yourselves going out on a date and perhaps maybe even (note use of numerous qualifiers) probably see yourself in a relationship with this person.

STAGE FOUR

Stage 4) Here comes the Crush.. Stage 4 (the Crush) is defined by a desire to talk to and hang out with the person, as well as the wish to end up in a relationship with the object of longing (lol).. Here’s where my definition of a crush differs from what I know a lot of people have defined. I personally don’t develop crushes on people I know nothing about or have not spoken to on a regular basis. Some other people, however, are perfectly ok with labeling their attraction to some popular person in school as a crush..

STAGE FIVE

Stage 5) Beyond the crush, relationships are starting to solidify and we’re delving into words that have more weight to them. Stage 5 is a stage of Liking. You may or may not be in a relationship with someone but you have definitely had enough interaction on a regular basis to develop strong feelings for this person. You are concerned for their wellbeing and would do things for them that take up your time. You think about them a lot of the time but you still live separate lives.

STAGE SIX

Stage 6) Here comes the big L-word. We move from Liking to Love. I don’t think I need to explain this too much but most times at this stage, you’re in a relationship (not necessarily all the time) and you feel intimate with this person. You care deeply for him/her and (without being too explicit) would do things with him/her.. You feel the need to spend special occasions together and not only do you care for this person, but because of your feelings towards him/her, you also feel a certain amount of affection and concern for the people in his/her life (ie family members or close friends) Also, you’re ready to commit to this singular person by this stage.

STAGE SEVEN (& beyond)

Stage 7) Anything beyond Stage 6 is slightly scary. I have one all-encompassing stage for everything beyond Stage 6 and it’s called OBSESSION. Yup, Mariah Carey’s song indeed. Obsession is when you are so driven by your feelings for a person that you feel the need to see/hear from/talk to that person all the time. You resort to stalking the person (be it on facebook or in real life) to catch a glimpse of him/her or to find out what he/she is doing..

I wasn’t sure if I should put Obsession in the list of Stages because it isn’t really an emotion or a stage of loving-feeling towards a person. However, it is an emotionally-driven stage that does fit in on the spectrum so I left it in.

———————————-

And there you have it, the complete list of SOL. Of course the above is just MY personally defined list of stages and should not be used as a guide to all women/men out there.. Though if you want to talk to ME about how I feel about a person, this would be a pretty good scale to use =)

As for the question in the blog title… Hey I’m notorious for keeping my private life private (kinda) so did you really think I was gonna even acknowledge such a question? It was just a teaser to get you guys reading =D

Enjoy, guys, and ttyl! =)

PS and Disclaimer: None of the images used in the blog post are mine. I ran a search on Google and found them. No infringement intended.

Popularity: 15% [?]

I’ve wanted to post this for awhile now.. I’ve been crazy about a Taiwan television drama for the past few weeks.. If you have me on msn you’ll notice i’ve been squeeing about this show for abit.. My MSN nick’s “光阴的故事！！ 美元恋FTW!!!” Hehe. 光阴的故事 is the title of the show.. Roughly translated, it means “The story of the passing of Time” or “The Story of Time” or even more directly, “Time’s Story”..

It’s a very sweet back-to-the-old-days kinda story about people living in the village areas of Taiwan from around the 1950’s all the way to modern day Taiwan.. It’s pretty long and draggy but the characters are endearing and funny (quirky would be a better word) and you’ll start to feel as if you know them after awhile.. In fact, before I started watching this show I thought it was pretty stupid but I started to watch it because I wanted to spend more time with my mom so I watched it with her (she likes it haha).. Now I’ve really developed a liking for this show and am watching the entire series on tudou, heh.

My favorite part of the show has to be the development of the relationship between characters 许毅源 (xu yiyuan) and 孙一美 (sun yimei).. The term for their relationship is the second part of my msn nick.. 美元恋FTW!!!  Haha minus the FTW of course.. I added that part. The guy’s name, Yi Yuan, sounds like One Dollar in Chinese, so they all call him Ji kou/r (which is one dollar in Taiwanese) .. The moniker for the couple is Mei Yuan, which means USD. Haha. Anyhoo, that aside, I really really really love this couple.

More accurately, I really really love how sweet Yi Yuan is to Yi Mei (the guy is to the girl).. I don’t believe that such a sweet guy exists (something I’ve mentioned in an earlier post)… He’s protective, loving, caring, thoughtful, sensitive, and just so much more!! Soooooooooo sweet omg.. Like the perfect boyfriend / husband!! *sighs*..

I utterly love seeing this two together.. She’s really cute and a little bit stupid.. She’s also very nosy and cares a lot about her friends. He cares a lot for her (after falling for her, of course) and is so loving and protective and oh I could go on and on..

Sigh if I could find me a guy like that in real life!!! Though I actually don’t think he’s very good-looking… (He’s kinda Jay-Chou-ish which isn’t bad.. Haha) but this picture below seems to want to prove me wrong.. He might be quite good-looking!

Hehe. Anyhoo, it’s a great show with solid acting (most of the time) and interesting characters. I love it and you might too! =) Go watch!

Popularity: 12% [?]

there hasn’t been a post about what I’ve done for like EVER.. and what’s a blog without some udpates about my life? So here’s what I did today since I actually got out of the house today.. Heh.

My first appointment was at the Dentist for my Invisalign! I’d gotten my mold made and wisdom teeth extracted previously for this so I was gonna get the aligners fitted today! I thought I’d take a before-and-after picture.. So here’s the shot I took at home..

Of course, I got a little trigger-happy and took some more pictures.. Lol.

Oh yeah, forgot you have to SEE my teeth before the trimming and stuff.. haha. Here’s one..

Yup.. I don’t have a perfect smile, orthodontia-wise.. I dunno how many thousand times I’ve been told (by random strangers, no less) that I have a nice smile.. Haha. I got very suspicious of these people because I have some NASTY teeth haha so anyhoo, after MUCH (annoying) prodding and nagging from my Kor, I finally got off my ass and went to get my Invisalign journey started.

It costs a lot to do Invisalign because it’s truly invisible.. You’ll see my pictures later.. Anyhow, after an x-ray and diagnosis by your doctor and the people in New York (takes about 3 weeks to get their response), you’ll get a detailed breakdown of how your teeth are going to shift and how the final product looks. My entire process will take about 40+ weeks.. 38weeks for my upper jaw and 40+ weeks for the lower jaw .. I have to change a set of aligners every 2 weeks to shift my teeth..

So I went down to the dentist’s today and had to get my teeth trimmed.. I was worried that it was going to hurt but I didn’t feel a thing.. Save for the usual discomfort at the dentist’s, like having to open your mouth for really long and hear some drilling sounds etc.. The only pain came from having to put my aligners in and out and in and out so that my dentist could put my attachments on.. Then again, my dentist said at the end of the session that my threshold for pain was quite high (meaning I’m quite tolerant of pain) so don’t take my word for it.. I deal with massive menses cramps every month so pain is slowly becoming a non-issue to me.. (though I’m still terrified of pain)

Anyhow, here’s what I looked like at the end of the day (fast forward a bit because I only took these pictures at the end of the day lol) with my attachments but WITHOUT aligners.. (to brush teeth first, before I went to bed) WARNING: quite fugly picture haha.

You can sort of see the attachment if you look closely but otherwise, you can’t since it’s tooth colored..

Yup that’s what they look like. Here’s how I look after fitting them on!

So? Do you notice any difference? Oh by the way, I’m wearing a TUBE dress so I’m not naked or anything like that haha. Anyways, there isn’t really a difference when I smile but when I close my lips I look like I have a jutting out jaw (since I have to close my mouth over additional stuff), which displeases me but I have to live with it I guess.. =(

By the way, pardon the lousy pictures.. Used my phone’s camera to take them haha.

After getting my aligners, I went down to City Hall to pick up my book that I’d pre-ordered months ago… Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol!!!!

Yay!! I’m quite a fan of Dan Brown’s books so I was excited to pick up my book today..  At MPH I also bought another book — The Eight by Katherine Neville.. Sounded interesting so I bought it using vouchers provided by a good friend =D Hee. I also bought a book called Almost Impossible Word Puzzles.. I had bought a similar book of Logic Puzzles earlier this year and quite enjoyed it (plus the cover is really pretty and “posh”) so I bought this one since I love word puzzles..

Siying met me at MPH and we headed off to Paya Lebar MRT to get to our Volunteer meeting at CDAC.. We picked up some finger food on the way and got to the CDAC building safely. Lol. Then came the tough part. I had to remove my aligners by myself in the public toilet before I could eat…

This was horrible and well, bloody. My dentist had taught me to put in and remove my lower aligner and just to put in my upper aligner but not how to remove it.. He went through it theoretically with me but we didn’t actually do it because he wanted to leave it in longer..

I now have a phobia of removing my upper aligner.. Everything else I can do.. Just removing the upper aligner scares me. Haha.

Anyhow, our briefing (part of my project onv olunteering =)) was informative but boring and unnecessarily long at times.. Siying and I were glad to find that we were placed in the same group. We’re excited to be part of this project. We’ll be helpers at an event organized by Project CARE – a joint event by Lions Befrienders and CDAC..

What we’ll be doing is accompany (what the CDAC calls) “vulnerable” elderly to do some grocery shopping at NTUC at Jurong Point.

FairPrice has kindly sponsored $30 worth of vouchers per elderly participant for use at their FairPrice outlets. Us volunteers will be helping the seniors carry their things around, pick out stuff for them, helping them to budget and basically keep them happy =)

I find that this activity is really meaningful and I really hope that the seniors can benefit from it. At the end of the event all participants (volunteers and elderly) will be having lunch together at Safra Jurong and enjoying some activities and games there too. What I really wish is for the elderly people who may have been neglected to have a chance to feel cared for and enjoy themselves in their golden years.

When the briefing was over, Siying and I went to Mac’s for supper (remove aligners again, less bloody, slightly less painful) and took the last train home! We had a nice long chat about all sorts of things (mostly boys, haha)… And we talked about how we were going to WIN A LOT OF MONEY tomorrow at Mahjong!! Woots!

I’m not looking forward to the pain my dentist cautioned about that should happen tomorrow but I’m looking forward to a day of MAHJONG!!!

So this was my day. How was yours? =)

Popularity: 9% [?]