My Entire Webshots Albums Gone!!!!

Holy holy cow dunk!!

With so many things occupying my life in October, November and December 2012, I was not aware of my go-to Photo hosting website was shutting down due to management restructuring. What the heck?

I just found out today after checking my "abandoned" MySpace page and saw images of this "memo" plastered all over the page.

What the fish?

When I clicked on it, I was brought to this:

Huh?

I started to fish for information and discovered they deleted those photos as Webshots now has turned into Smile by Webshots and apparently only those who managed to log on by 1st December 2012 and saved their photos or migrated to the new service are spared from the deletion. Oh my Lord!

See the news here at Flickr and here at The FW.

You know what people? This has rendered the existence of my entire Blog almost obsolete!

I mainly used Webshots for my photos here as I like how they automatically generated codes for exactly the sizes I wanted easily and the whole look and feel of the website was warm and inviting. Not to mention user-friendly. I even found some of the best photos in the world on there, uploaded by other users. Some of my blog entries here are photo-based with embedded images from those. Now, with those photos gone, this blog just DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE.

This blog, even though I haven't been updating it for quite some time, has been the testimony of my foray into the online world diary-keeping. Now, I feel like a big chunk of my life history has been erased! Like an invisible bomb has been dropped onto my head! Like my heart has been ripped out!

What do I do now? Those older photos are mainly kept in my old PC which is now collecting dust. The poor thing blacked out back in April 2012 and I haven't got the time to fix it yet. The new year has started and this is the year that I desperately need to start anew with my life (finding a new job, saving more money, hauling my entire existence etc) and I don't want to have to go back to fix this simply because a company restructured.

Dear Almighty, please help me ease up. This has been a rough start for me. May you help me stay on the positive path.

Kristen Stewart's public apology may not be the best way to win back Rob Pattinson

Was watching the rerun of Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire last night on TV. This is the movie that introduced Robert Pattinson to me. Playing Cedric Diggory, Harry's love rival. Oh, how fresh-faced he was back then. A new actor not knowing whether he would get a job or not after this one. No paparazzi. No tabloid gossips. A private life.

Rob Pattinson as the fresh-faced Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter.

BAM!! Thanks to Facebook, I was jolted by the hot news of Rob being cheated by the girlfriend that he never declared to the world before. Kristen Stewart whom I actually liked since her first appearance in The Panic Room couldn't have chosen the worst time to bring their relationship public. 

It is sad for any relationship that a woman got photographed making out with another man when the the only steamy photos we've seen of her with her real boyfriend are all from the movies they both are in. It is just too bad that we finally got the confirmation of their romance through the following public apology she issued.

"I'm deeply sorry for the hurt and embarrassment I've caused to those close to me and everyone this has affected.  This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I'm so sorry."

Now, every couple has problems. Nobody's perfect. However, I personally think that in this particular case, the public apology is highly unnecessary because she does not owe it to the public.

Why do I say that Kristen does not owe it to the public? True, she made a mistake. But it's not like she is married or has kids. Married people especially those with kids DO owe it to the public because once you're in that legal commitment, you have the responsibility of upholding the family values. It's not fair that the cheating married man has not really been the target of the press hounding.


Another more important reason is because I personally think the public apology statement only serves as "rubbing the salt to the wound". It publicly humiliates Rob instead and will further hurt her chance of winning him back. It's obvious she wants him back but I personally feel she's throwing the ball in his court the incorrect way.

I know a thing or two about going public with personal issues. Thanks to that thing we call "social website". Let's just say, I was irked by what a guy was doing. So, my reaction was to dive deep into "messaging terrorism" on a "social website". He read everything. Everybody in my list read everything. People who didn't know the story behind it left comments. I thought it was the right thing to do to get things off my chest. Then, I posted about "not wanting to hurt the person I care about". What happened after that was, instead of me and him coming to peace with each other, my postings had built up resentment in him towards me instead. I was basically told to minimize contact with him. It got ugly from that point.

Now, looking back, I know how foolish it was. It also painted me as someone with no dignity or self respect, which is exactly the opposite of what I wanted. Certain things are better off settled in private.

The thing about women is, we tend to tell the world about what we feel when we are trapped in that situation. Yes, Kristen did Rob wrong but the incurable romantic in me want them to work things through and get back together.

No. I'm not a Twilight fan.

The Voice 2 - Hello Tony Vincent....I'm officially Team Cee Lo... :-)

When Season 2 of The Voice started, I was quickly prompted by a certain somebody in my life to pick a team to root for.

You see, last season, unknowingly (since we weren't really on good terms at the time), we both supported the same artist....Dia Frampton. She of course was on Blake Shelton's team. So, this year, seeming to like a few hopefuls on that team, that certain somebody declared he's Team Blake. I told him the ones I liked went to Cee Lo. There were TWO. One is Jamie Lono and the other one is this beautiful man.....

Tony Vincent!

Of course, I was totally biased towards him as he's a Broadway singer (I love stage musicals!), he sang a Queen song (my siblings and I love Queen and Freddie Mercury) and he totally looks like a rock star! True, his voice is a bit on the thin side and not as manly as some of the contenders but at the end of the day, he has the package. What criteria do I want from a contender? Must be someone who has what it takes to make me want to buy that ticket and stand in line to see him perform. This man has that worthy factor. Oh, he's also tall and thin like my musical hero Mr. Chris DeGarmo (formerly of Queensryche) which further explains the "biased" bit.

We Are The Champions

However, I wasn't so quick declaring myself a Team Cee Loo. At that point I hadn't really watched many other contenders and I wanted to see who else was worthy rooting for. I wanted to make my choice after the Battle Rounds.

I was sad to find out that Tony got paired up with Justin Hopkins (who has a great raspy manly voice). It meant one of them had to go.

This battle was placed last of the last. I think the producers knew these two would close the battle round spectacularly.

They obviously have tremendous respect for each other, performing more like a duet than a battle that night. I wish they harmonized at the "Oh...oh....oh....oh...." though with Tony doing the higher notes. That would make the performance even more spectacular. It's sad to think that one of these two had to go. I wish they were not paired up so they both would still stay till at least the Live shows. So unfair :-(

Yes, I finally sealed it. My final pick for The Voice 2. Didn't I say he's tall and thin like Chris DeGarmo? I "heart" that :-)

 Lord Voldemort came to LA and grew a nose!

As for that "certain somebody", all those he picked got booted out. Sorry dear :-)

Dia Frampton Covering 2NE1's Lonely

Talking about the Frampton sisters, I must say that currently I'm kind of addicted to this remake of a Korean girl group 2NE1's hit Lonely. Yes, I absolutely have no idea about the Korean group. Not a K-Pop follower.

Dia Frampton duet-ting with her sister Meg beautifully :-)

This is just perfect. I wish I have a voice as distinctive as Dia. Not necessarily sounds like hers but distinctively individual that people recognize as soon as they hear it.

I have no idea if the English lyrics match the Korean original though. How would I know? I'm not in line to register myself into a Korean language class any time soon.....haha.

Saying "Hello" to 2012 with a New Blog Look....

Finally, after years, I surrendered to the Blogger own template after finding out the FinalSense template I'd been using was shrunk and sliced by the new Blogger. I was shocked to see it on the Internet Explorer at my office. For years, I'd been loyal to the old Firefox which I've been refusing to upgrade and my blog looked fine in it.

I've been contemplating on changing the blog look for quite awhile. It's sad to bid farewell to my old design as it was so ME but as I'm no expert on CSS or HTML, I was totally helpless to see the old codes clashing with the new overhaul by Google causing my page to shrink and sliced really bad.

Working through the templates and twisting things here and there made me realize how attached I am to my old  design. I mean, I'm still stuck with the "green" theme all over. Even keeping the Verdana font because I can't bring myself to reading this blog in other fonts. Ditto for the girly image which I combined from a few "shopping girl" free wallpapers I found online.

For awhile, I'd been wanting to try simplifying my blog to symbolize me trying to de-clutter my life from some of the mess I've gotten myself into or trapped into involuntarily. I found my inspirations after seeing The Voice Season 1 US 1st runner-up Dia Frampton's and her sister Meg's blogs.

Dia simply named hers Dia Frampton as her new-found fame affords her to go by her own name while her sister Meg goes by the name of her handmade jewellery line Chandler the Robot.

Here is Dia Frampton's blog....

....and here is Meg Frampton's blog....

Both blogs are as basic and simple as you can get but really suit the sisters' personality. What I love about their blogs is the story they want to tell really take the centre stage with their no-frills approach. Very much like the way they approach music.

So, for now, here it is. My own for now.

Maybe I will go for more colours next time just to go the Anne Hathaway method of going for the opposite of her previous movie role when choosing the next one. But me being me, I will still keep the white background.......for that little touch of simplicity :-)

Life lesson....always stick to Plan A

I have always prided myself on being a meticulous "planner". That's how
I've been living my life. Sadly, many times, if not most of the times,
plans just go down the drain because like Def Leppard said in their
Hysteria inner album sleeve...."shit happens.".
I think it's time to overhaul my life following some hurtful and
disappointing events I went through. I don't want to plan anything. I
will just take whatever that comes and go wherever my feet will take me.
Plans? No more. No more. No more.
If I still need to have a plan, I will just do Plan A. No Plan B for the
so-called "backup". You know why? I learned the hard way recently that
compromising for Plan B quickly led me to Plan C and before I knew it, I
was trapped in Plan D.
It's freaking D!!
D = Doomed
D = Damned
D = Dumb
D = Deadened
Nothing good can come out of Plan D. In the end I was tossed helplessly
to turn to "Dust"..........

Malaysia Online Shopping Fashion Shop with "plus size" available......yeah!

I was out today to TESCO Supermarket. They have little arcades with shops selling clothes as well.

I wasn't there to buy clothes but I got curious. Hey, maybe among all those blouses hanging on the racks, there could be something for me. NOT! This is Malaysia! Apparently, all clothes makers assume that since we're Asians, every woman here is size S (small) or XS (extra small).

By all accounts, yeah, I am short as most Asians but I am also curvy unlike most Asians. That's where the problem is.

So, at home while checking my FB account, I saw this Ad for the following website.

Malaysia Online Shopping Fashion Shop 马来西亚网购服装专卖店

I got curious and clicked. Here's the screenshot.


Scrolling down, I saw a nice black dress with the description "plus size". Hmm...? Not so convincing with the super dainty slim model they're using. However, when I cliked on the info, they really list out the "plus size" measurements for L, XL, 2XL and 3XL. OK :-), now I believe them.


I think the dress is beautiful. Don't know how it would look like on me. One will never know till one actually buys one. Too bad they're not using "plus size" models for the "plus size" range :-(

My first "broken heart anthem" and goodbye Jani Lane

Goodbye Jani Lane.

For those who grew up in the glorious days of 'hair band', this name was the ultimate epitome of hair metal cheesiness. From a trivia given on the American Top 40 radio show I used to listen to back then, I found out that the name Jani was ctually his twist on the pronounciation of his name Johnny......it was meant be pronounced Jah-ney, hence J-A-N-I. However, when he used that spelling in LA, people read it out as Jay-ney. So, the pronounciation stuck.

Being offline for a few days, I wasn't aware of Jani's passing till I saw a posting on the band Ratt's Facebook Wall saying RIP Jani Lane. I wasn't shocked by the news as it has been well-documented how Jani struggled with alcoholism for years. In fact, I'm sure I read somewhere or heard an interview with another musician from that era that Jani had been warned by doctors that if he didn't sober up, he'd die within a year. His condition I believe was THAT serious.

I remember Jani during his happy days when Warrant had a Top 10 album back in the late 80s. I saw behind-the-scene pictures of the Cherry Pie video shoot in Metal Edge magazine and immediately had the feeling that Jani and the model Bobbie Brown were attracted to each other even though she was dating Matthew Nelson (from the Nelson twins) at the time. In fact, Matthew was there at the shoot visiting her. I was right, Jani and Bobbie married just months later.

I also remember buying the Cherry Pie album one night on a school bus trip to the town that my teachers arranged when I cried in front of them at the teachers' office. Embarrassing to remember my crying scene in front of my Chemistry and Art Head teachers but hey, it got us the evening out in the school bus!

Jani of later years (one of the better looking pictures)

......and Jani as I knew him back in my school days........

It was shocking to see how Jani looked like years later. With the grunge years, many 'hair' rockers fell on hard times financially but the depression and failed marriages probably took a toll on him.

As for me, I will always remember Jani as the guy who wrote my first 'broken heart' anthem. At the time, I was going through my first 'heartbreak'.....ya..ya..ya..back in school. When I bought the tape, I immediately took a liking to TWO songs on it. One is the brilliant Uncle Tom's Cabin which showed off Jani's ability to write darker songs and this one.......I Saw Red. It was written from his own experience but I feel he captured the ultimate betrayed feeling of catching the one you love red-handed with someone you know. In my case, a girl I helped writing her English essay for was seeing a guy I liked without me knowing. Hey, if I knew, I wouldn't have bothered helping her. Thanks Heaven, I had this song from Jani to bury my 'misery' into.

So this is how I will always remember Jani....

Jani and the song I will always remember him by....

Why are they sending kids on the streets to be beggars?

The fasting month of Ramadhan has started for Muslims all over the world. It started on 1st August in my country. Sure, in this holy month, we are encouraged to be more charitable and helpful to other people but there was an incident that just happened that put me in my own moral dilemma.

I was filling up my car at a petrol station when I saw a girl with a receipt book standing and walking around approaching people. Asking for donation. I'd seen at the same station a few days before that and I was surprised to still see her there that day.

As expected, she then approached me saying it was for an orphanage. I just grinned uneasily. This is hard for me. Yes, I do feel sorry for her having to walk to strangers asking for money. Yes, Islam teaches us to be charitable to the poor, the needy and to the orphans but at the same time Islam does not teach us to be street beggars. You know what I mean?

It's ok for orphanage or any non-profit body to ask for donation but I think sending out children on the street to beg for money from strangers is NOT the way to go. I believe in 'raising funds' instead of begging. Why can't these kids be taught the right way to make money? By actually working for it? I mean, why can't these orphanages organize a Bake Sale for example or put up a food stall at a Ramadhan bazaar? Let the kids take part in it by taking turns with each other. Or how about getting them to make and sell Eid Cookies through proper channels or even NGOs? This will be more character-building for them instead of walking around as beggars.

I refuse to support any begging activity especially if it involves sending children out on the streets to approach strangers for money. So, I didn't give her anything as much as my inner conscience shooting guilt in the back of my head. I still think begging is wrong. Sending children out to do it is almost equivalent to human trafficking crime to me.

It's hard as I was torn between the issues of Humanitarian, Human Trafficking and my own Moral Dilemma but I chose my stand that day.

I'm thinking of a blog redesign....

The thought has crossed my mind many times. This blog can't stay forever looking like this.


It's only natural that with my Art background, I should have been doing my own blog design instead of using the pre-made templates from a template site. This template from FinalSense is beautiful. No doubt about it and the top picture suits me to a tee. However, with the changes in my life, I think it's time for an overhaul.

No, I have limited knowledge of HTML coding. Let alone CSS. It's just now that Blogger has begun accommodating 3-column templates, I am now eager to use it. I have always wanted my personal Info to be on one side and my Links or Ads to be on another. Also, with most screens are wider now, I can now afford to keep the 900pixels width for my contents.

There is only one thing that's stopping me though. In many previous posts, I already formatted certain blog contents with bold fonts or different sized fonts to emphasize certain points in the stories. If I change the template, those formattings will be gone.

But still.......the new look will come :-)

Cupcake bakeries ~ is taking over the world and your bank balance not going hand-in-hand?

I love baking (obviously) even though I don't have that much time to do it nowadays.

Anyway, who in the baking world does not know of the cupcake phenomenon? Or is it a cupcake fad? Personally, I can't see it much as a fad because cupcakes to me translate as "portion control" for the sweets lovers. Besides, you can pick many different flavours in small portions rather than one cake with one flavour.

However, it scares me to read that the famous US cupcake bakery Crumbs made only $34,400 profit in the latest quarter after a turnover of $9.7 million. In the year before, it made $219,500 on a turnover of $7.1 million. Huh?!!

Read it here.

Crumbs Bakery Peanut Butter Cup Cupcake.....hmm....looks good.
Reason given is the rising overhead cost due to their expansion. So, is it worth it to have your brand name/branch everywhere? Sometimes, maybe it is not. It is difficult to maintain standards in mass production (Trust me, I'm a factory worker).

Chocolate Chip Cupcake with Peanut Butter Frosting from the Coffee Beans & Tea Leaf cafe. Yummy too. The cupcake is dense like soft cookies.

Maybe good things really should come in small packages :-)

Everyone is beautiful but are we grateful?

Something that touched me deep happened tonight.

So many things were going through my mind as I walked to a shopping mall on the way home from work. I thought of that someone and how things went bad between us (my fault). I thought of my wishes. Troubles at work. Things that I read today.....etc....etc.

When I was walking around near a beauty section, I saw a married couple with their kids. 2 older pretty girls and 1 baby in a colourful flowery pram.

I walked past the father who was holding the handle of the pram and saw the baby.

What I saw tugged me at the heartstring. The peacefully sleeping baby had no nose and more than just a cleft. The upper side of the mouth was not formed and continue to the area where the nose should have been.

At that moment, I left my troubles in a bubble for awhile. I wanted nothing more than to hold that baby in my arms and whisper "You are beautiful, sweetheart". My eyes started to tear up. Seeing how peaceful the baby was, sleeping in the pram. Not yet knowing what this world could be and what the future would hold.

How ironic that we were at the beauty product section. A wave of shame swept through me. Beauty product sections in shopping malls exist because of our vanity and insecurity about our looks. Yet, who are we to complain that we're ugly when our Creator had given us everything in place?

I glanced at the parents of the baby and saw that despite it all, they were proud to show the world that this special child was theirs and that the child was celebrated in every way.

I walked back to my car, trying to hold back my tears. I didn't want the parents to see me like that. I got in my car, turned on the music with a slow rock song. I thought of the baby, Nikki Sixx's new song Lies of the Beautiful People and of course 'him'. Tears started trickling down my cheeks. Have I been ungrateful?

A car came to park beside mine. It was full of men when I turned my face to look. Maybe a family of father and sons. I bet they already saw me crying. I reversed my car to leave but I think those men were all curious about my teary eyes as they just stood there after getting out of their car.

I drove away with another lesson learned.

The metrosexua​ls are here to stay.... :-)

Blame it on the likes of David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo, the star footballers (soccer players) of the world but metrosexuality is here to stay and conquer our men......and I like it....haha!

While waiting for a mechanic to take a look at my car aircond problem earlier last week, I walked to an Optical shop nearby and casually looked at the Coloured contact lenses promo ad outside the door. A young man came out in pristine outfit with a flyer in his hand. All hair in place. Clear skin. Big eyes.

He greeted me, starting to talk about the promotion they were having. I just stood outside listening. After walking in and out the door several times with different flyers, he asked me to come in. Haha. Poor guy. This is why a career in sales and marketing is a doomed road for me.

I walked in, feeling sorry for the young man. Hey, he was nice. No harm there. Inside, there was another young guy with a pair grey contact lenses. As they were both talking, I looked at them. I think it's fair to say that these guys have more hair product on their hair per day than I've ever had in my entire life!

I wasn't interested to get any coloured contact lenses because I don't really like them. They're a bit dry as the water content is normally below 50%. However, the guys were just doing their jobs. Besides, I have naturally brown eyes which people always mistake for coloured contact lenses anyway.

Before long, I changed the boys' promo talk to another topic. About car maintenance and vacations in Port Dickson (PD). They told me how they enjoy beaches and privacy during holidays. They gushed about Eagle Ranch Resort in PD. Incidentally, it is a place I've been wanting to go. I have a thing for Cowboys and Indians since I was a kid and this place seems like the kind for me. We also talked about the mystical Pulau Besar and our wishes to go there only hindered by the scary stories about it. It was fun sometimes having friendly conversation with total strangers....hehe.

The whole time, it was impossible not to observe the boys' haircuts, their skin, their overall grooming and their demeanor. Yes, they even had nice teeth. Like I said, these guys probably put on more hair products on their head in one day than I've ever had in my entire life. The skin showed that they took the time to choose what skincare would work for them. Mind you, this is just a shop in a small town i.e upgraded village. Not in a big metropolitan.

Ok. Patiently taking their time chit-chatting with me, I thought it was only polite for me to try on the coloured lenses. In this case, Circle lenses that make the irises big like Anime characters. Once I had them on, the boys actually really looked at how those lenses looked on me and commented which colours they thought suited me better.

"Oh, don't pick this one. U look too cartoon-like," "This one is better for u," "She looks different, doesn't she?" (asking his friend)
"Would u like to try this colour? It will look good. Trust me," "Hey, look. Your natural eye colour makes this lense look different," "U see that? How the colour looks on her?" (asking his friend) "Oh, certainly pick this one. It looks so good on U (smile),"
etc.....etc....etc......

Hey, who needs a girl companion to shop with when we can have this kind of male shop assistants?

So, what's a girl to do? Yup, I was so taken in by the charms of the metrosexuals. I came in not wanting anything to do with coloured contact lenses and by the end of the conversation, I willingly forked out RM60 for a pair of Brown Circle Lenses which I do not really need yet those metros liked on me. I don't even know when I'm going to wear them.


To add cherry to the topping, as I sat at the car workshop waiting for the mechanic to work on my car, Mr. Metro No.1 whizzed by in his little car, honking and smiling with a friendly gesture.

I don't know about you but I like men to be accessible, unashamed of being in touch with their inner effeminacy and yet still secure about their sexuality. I certainly am not turned on by men who think they should keep their manliness in check all the time by acting serious and tough or the way we call it in this country = "control macho". Cute and playful are way more fun to me.

Lord of the Rings. Aragorn or Legolas?

the strong and serious Aragorn......?

OR

the agile and playful Legolas?

You know MY answer :-)

The little adoration continued today.....awww....sweet

Following what happened on Friday night with that little girl in my previous post, I'm happy to report that I got another sweet surprise today from a little boy.....awww.

I was walking around looking at all these beauty products randomly at Watsons in Jusco shopping mall today. I had to attend the wedding of a colleague earlier. It was hot and I came to the mall to cool down in the airconditioning in the building.

I was standing at the shampoo section when I saw this little boy on a pushchair wheeled by his father. The boy looked about 1yr++ and still couldn't form a proper word. He had curly brownish hair. He looked up and his eyes stared straight at my face. For awhile, I thought he was puzzled or scared. Well, I couldn't read his expression.

Then, the little boy broke into a smile showing his tiny teeth. I smiled back at him as his father pushed his chair to the end of the rack behind me. The boy leaned over to look at me and started waving his little hand with his baby voice uttering what must have been a baby's "Hi!". I waved back at him and his enthusiasm was just oh-so-endearing. His father just smiled, amused.

Well, that certainly made my day. I hope God will keep on sending me little sweet surprises day after day. Thank you for your gift.

:-)

It feels good to be adored......again

I just went through something I'm not proud of recently.....about 3 weeks ago regarding a person. Don't want to go into that in this post.

So, maybe God had somehow arranged the Universe to perk me up last night and it feels goooooood!!

I was driving home from work when I had to stop at a traffic light when a saloon car carrying a family with young kids stopped on my right. There was a curly-haired little girl sitting on her mother's lap at the front seat. She looked like less than 2yrs old. She turned her cute little face and saw me. Something must have triggered her in the head when she suddenly stood up, smiled showing her tiny teeth and waved at me. I was taken aback. Wow, it'd been such a long time since a stranger's baby did that to me. I got quite a number of this kind of experiences when I was a student but as a working girl? This must be the first in years that I could remember.

Somehow the traffic light took quite some time to change to green, so the little girl was more than happy to be "friendly" towards me. She kept smiling and waving that even her mom and her older brother (about 7yrs old) noticed me too.

When the traffic light turned green, her dad sped the car away. It was a much bigger car than my "trusty rusty antique" so I was left behind in the trails. However, the car sped away with the cute little girl smiling even bigger and waving at me even stronger. Now that's the memory that is etched in my mind as I'm typing this.

Yes, it feels good to be adored like that especially if it's from a little soul. Random act of adoration. It's a baby. No agenda. Just pure adoration. Thank you God for this little gift :-)