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A blogathon like no other.
When I first received the email from Pat Law about the blogathon, I was undeniably skeptical about the entire thing. I wasn't really sure about it, and had a few queries. I was also unsure if I'm up for this kind of impromptu writing and what is my "standard" of blogging compared to the other contestants.
From the initial email, the incentive that made me decide to give it a try would probably be the sponsored wardrobe by Tangs. Fast forward a month or so, we were at Intel's office and being briefed on how the entire blogathon is going to be happening. There were the people from Tangs, Intel, Lenovo, Ogilvy & even the production team, Munkysuperstar. I was awed by the scale of this blogathon as I'd thought that it was just some dodgy blogger campaign. The session really got me hyped-up about the blogathon, thinking how I should prepare for it and garner all the support needed. Well, though from the list of the contestants, we can already predict who are the ones that are going to win! Thankfully I was going to be paired up with Nadia, my best blogging/bitching partner and I was really looking forward in spending the 24 hours together with her!  Then a week later, we were at Tangs for the wardrobe fitting - a generous $500 sponsor! I knew I didn't have to "fight" for the clothes like the girls 'cos the two other guys are of very different dressing style as me! So it was quite a breeze! My final outfit's from Playlab, Dapper, Superdry and FRED PERRY!!! WOOT!  We also had a one-to-one consultation with the KCRs - Kiehl's Customer Representatives and all of as received a whooping $200 worth of Kiehl's products. To be honest, I had never walked into any of their stores prior to this, though I was eyeing on the eye cream that my camp mate is using. Well, I'm totally sold just after that session! Shall blog about the Kiehl's goodness in a separate entry altogether! The filming during the fitting was fun! Although a tad stressful during the interview 'cos I kept forgetting to paraphrase my answers!   Gillian and the very charming intern. THEN CAME THE FINAL SHOWDOWN! ...okay, not exactly a showdown, but you get the drift.  The first hour was damn hectic! And thankfully Gracey and Mus was around to help Nadia and I to set up the place.  Really appreciated them for helping us to sort out the mess on the table and writing on the white boards to tell the people to vote for us! I remember I was panicking on what to do and Gracey said, "Don't worry, leave the rest to us! Just start blogging!" This particular display window has got the smallest space compared to the others and there were stuff hanging at the back of our heads and the displays were already taking like half of the window. And since there were only two chairs in it, I had to sit on the faux drawer which eventually caved in 'cos it was made of foam boards.   Streams of people kept flooding towards and trying to interact with us, so we used the TV just next to our window that was displaying the #bthon feed. Mad funny thinking back how troublesome it was to "talk" with the glass barrier.  Pat Law the barista with her Blankanvas apron! Didn't drink the coffee throughout the night 'cos I think I'm very used to late nights and didn't need the caffine to stay awake. Oh! While we're at it, Nadia on the other hand finished a large diet coke by herself and she desperately needed to pee when it was still waaaaay before her toilet break. And I've totally gotten it all on video! Hahaha! Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=expLurKHvZ0 Unfortunately, my lappy kept going into Window's worst nightmare - Blue Screen of Death, which left me stranded at the table with nothing to do while waiting. So I whipped out my sketchbook and started doodling!  One of the people from Tangs saw it and wanted to make it into a t-shirt or something. But I thought the doodling wasn't really depicting the entire blogathon, but rather just Nadia and I. Note that the upper part of the piece is stuff that represented her and the bottom part is about me. So it didn't happen in the end! Well, if anyone of us were to do an illustration for this blogathon, it has to be SHERYO! Her works are AMAZING! Please check them out at illustromaniac.blogspot.com! So anyway, I'd posted an entry "Illustrating blogathon" about the process of this doodle piece in the blogathon blog. Do take a look if you're interested.   The Kiehl's boys were one of the highlights, I guess! When they appeared, the first thing that people will do, is to tell them to strip. Nadia's persuasion did not work on the first day, so in the morning of the the second day, she worked her charm again. AND GUESS WHAT?! IT WORKED! AND I'VE GOTTEN IT ALL ON VIDEO AGAIN! Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92b_2g67sQE  The "victim" happened to be one of Nuffnang's bloggers too! He's Edison and blogs at shaun-owyeong.blogspot.com During the last few hours or so, @singabeng appeared!  If you don't already know who he is, @singabeng is like Rockson the ah beng blogger who is very blatant with his language when blogging. Except, he is like the Twitter version. I'd been following him for his hilarious tweets that never fails to crack me up. So the twitter feed started to have his tweets popping out, and before long, we knew he's somewhere around us!  He likes my hair! LOL!  We were all hunting for him and scanning through everyone in the crowd. Then Nadia made a comment about his tweets, which suddenly struck me that what she said was like so true and leading to the identity of @singabeng! You know, it's like those crime solving scenes, whereby the detective keeps thinking about the identity of the murderer, and then, somebody make a passing remark which struck him the answer to the entire mystery! LOL Well I shan't reveal what Nadia said and who we feel that could very well be the real identity behind @singabeng. Just because if everything is true to what we've deduced, the fun of reading his tweets will no longer be there. Let's just enjoy his anonymity and continue following him!  Thanks to all the people who'd came down to support! I LOVE YOU GUYS! Congrats to Nadia and Nicholas for the win! P/s: The photos in this entry are from various sources: Victor, Nadia, Tangs, DK & Patlaw. 
RIP Yasmin Ahmad
Sometimes I really wonder why is life so fragile.
 Photo credit: Audi We first heard about her stroke incident on Thursday and just moments ago, (various) (sources) announced that she'd just passed away. I'm very sadden by the news, I thought she would get better after the operation. Life is just too delicate. I'm sincerely very honored that I've met her so recently and be inspired by her. She is undeniably a great talent and someone with so much heart & soul in her work. You have all my respect, and our prayers to you, Yasmin Ahmad. Rest in peace. Labels: yasmin ahmad
What's a blogathon?
I was going to write about what happened during the blogathon when I recalled the bad press that came up. At first, I wasn't gonna bother much about it. But as more and more people jump on the bandwagon, I couldn't help but to read what they say and to feel affected by it.
I thought, as one of the 10 #bthon bloggers, maybe I could say something about it?  The biggest issue was that, a lot feel that this blogathon competition had a wrong "cause" and that blogathons are only meant for charity or to raise awareness about an issue. So may I ask, who ever set this regulation? Isn't blogathon just a mesh up word of 'blogging' and 'marathon'? Why does all these '-athons' have to be done in the same fashion all the time? Well, to me, I like to think adding that suffix simply means a prolonged period of that particular activity! Charity or not, it's a totally different issue. Yes, this is an event for brand awareness and a lucrative competition for the bloggers. But no one ever promote this blogathon as a charity/cause-related. And may I emphasize that none of us ever use the idea of a good cause to mislead the public to the attention of this event. That aside, another problem faced was if we'd breached Blogathon.org's Creative Commons license. To be honest, prior to this blogathon competition, I had no idea that there is a Blogathon.org. Little did I know that there have been blogathons that were held in the name of good cause. But it's a little frustrating to read the writeup of the use of 'blogathon': I’m interested in using the name or concept of the “Blogathon” for my own project. Is that okay? I find it too vague to simply say that a word belongs to you. Especially when it's a noun like that. It's like saying, "OKAY, I shall copyright "walking" and I will sue anyone who uses it." (...it's just like that stupid company who patented the 'way' of hyperlinking via images) What I am trying to say, I feel that a blogathon is not like a "product" that someone created. It's a movement, and an event that can be generalized as it, if it is, well, a blogging marathon. I'm sure the people who came up with the Tangs Blogathon didn't have any intention to violate the use of the word. In any case, if they've known earlier about the issue, I believe they would have changed the name or the spelling of it, just so it's politically correct. But overall, it is STILL a blogging marathon right?  During the blogathon, a flamer caught our attention with the obvious nickname, BthonSucks. He/she goes on whining about how the blogathon is pointless, the bloggers were like caged animals, and etc. Well, methinks the lady doth protest too much. Like I mentioned earlier, it is obviously a brand promoting event. A marketing strategy, and an unconventional marketing campaign. I don't understand why people like @BthonSucks have to pull it down so badly. Cheap advertisement? I can't speak for them, but idea and the amount of effort that goes behind this blogathon clearly shows how much they'd put into. FYI, the people from Ogilvy, Levono and Tangs stayed up with us throughout the entire event just so our IT/food-support (LOL! but yes, we even had supper!) can be accommodated to. Not to mention, the laptops, that we were using, were not even launched, and they were so new that they'd to be flown in the night before. So what's the point of this blogathon? Well, a friend of Nadia has already written a very blatant and brilliant post on it, do read up on it. Let me just leave you with this quote before I end the blog post: "You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time."
If only there were 72 hours a day,
...then I can keep up with my life, my work and my blog!
Anyhoo, here's a polaroid declaring my latest liking for a facial care brand!  I finally can spell the brand without having to refer back to its paper bag! YAY! It's KIEHL'S!!! Oh ya, Kiehl's does not only have facial products, they have hair and body products too!
Blogathon...
10 bloggers, 2 winners, 1 ULTIMATE EVENT!!! Here's more info quoted directly from Pat:
I'm gonna get locked up and displayed!
 ...FOR 24 HOURS! In a nutshell, I'm one of the 10 bloggers that are involved in a upcoming BLOGATHON - A BLOGGING MARATHON, that is organised by Tangs, Lenovo & Intel. I will be lying if I say I'm not excited about it!  Anyway, watch this video! YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeaSc16Sg5A Please pardon the "standard" of the video. I made it in one night! And I know I sound very bad, singlish and all, but I tried my best! Spent most of the time on the speech and that was like the 50th take, I think. I really CANNOT talk in front of the camera. I digress. So, if you didn't catch my bad engrish, it's gonna happen on this Friday (17 July), from 6pm, ALL THE WAY TILL Saturday (18 July) 6pm! And since it's perpetually impossible to win with the popular bloggers and good writers around, I'll just be there to have fun! Staying up shouldn't be a problem, I think. I'm just afraid that my frequent bowel movements will affect me the most. I TEND TO SHIT (AND FART!) HELL OF A LOT! All of you out there are welcome to support me! Either online through the Tangs blog that we're going to write on, OR offline, by going down to Tangs(Orchard!) and watch me blog (dig nose, scratch backside, etc) live! Yeah, this is the time you can scrutinise me for all you want without risking me punching you in return. Haha! P/s: If you follow me on Twitter, you would've noticed I've been tweeting with #bthon alot. Well, that's the official hashtag for this blogathon! Follow me closely over there, especially during the blogathon for updates! P/p/s: Share the love! The 9 other bloggers are namely Nadia, Claudia, DK, Hillary, Nicholas, Sheryo(I SUPER LOVE HER ILLUSTRATIONS!!!, Dottie and Stephie & Melly!
Most awesome flashmob ever!
Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je1KOcBYGjM It's so awesome that I'm getting goosebumps watching it!
Yet another doodle in camp...
So I was bored in camp once again. And the paper and marker were lying in front of me, you tell me - how to resist?
 It started out as a huge lightning bolt in the middle of the A4 paper, then it abruptly turned into Gaga frenzy when one of the storeman blasted 'Poker Face' with his mp3 speakers. I KNOW! I made Lady Gaga looked damn fat. Tried to shade in the cheeks a lil, but it didn't help. Meh. My favourite part of this doodle is that worm-looking guy at the bottom left. He's wearing one of Gaga's dorky shades and he has a lightning bolt tattoo! ANYWAY, I actually did quite a number of illustration in this style since BMT till now. Most of them were done for other people, like bday cards and whatnot, so I couldn't keep a copy of it. Euphe suggested that I should put them together as a series, to which I think it's a great idea! So yeah I'm starting to keep them now, hopefully by the time I ORD, I'll be able to make them into a book or something!  Will you buy this? :P
The Material Addiction
Guess what I bought?!
 No, don't be fooled by the picture at the top left corner, it's nowhere close to a pair of sneakers! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Well, it's a WAFFLE HOODIE!  pardon the boxers :P Anyhoo, I bought it from the Nike Outlet Store at West Coast Plaza (i think it's the old Ginza plaza right?). If I'm not wrong, outlet stores sell stuff that's a season back, but hell, it's mad cheap! If you know me well enough, you would know that I totally obsessed with 2 things - geeky frames and jackets! I find it very hard to resist not to buy a nice one unless it's too ex for me to afford. So about a month ago, during the Fred Perry Clearance Sale...  I got this!!!  Photos don't do justice to this gorgeous blue nylon FP jacket! IT IS MAD CHIO! *swoons* I ISH HAPPY!
A Tribute to the King of Pop
Contest entry
Check out this animation that I've made! YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Dqm39PSFwA  click for full res
Here's my story made with music. What's yours? Shake up with Nokia Comes With Music!
The answer is...
Yanzi!!!
My other half adores Stefanie Sun alot so I bought this!  P/s: This is my first time going to a concert, concert. WOOT! P/p/s: Fat hope, but JOLIN BETTER BE THE GUEST STAR!!! P/p/p/s: See ya there too, Ben!
Friends
These were taken quite sometime ago, and I've already uploaded them to Facebook. But I just got this sudden urge to post them up here. :)
          WEIRD expression....... I was mad drunk! Anyway, on a totally unrelated issue, recently I was marveled by how fast and how easy it is for friends to come and go. One moment you can be talking your hearts out to a bunch of friends you treasure, and before you know it, you're already hanging out with a different group of friends. Sometimes, it's a little disheartening that people don't call you out with them anymore. I guess it's like what most people would say, "It takes two hands to clap". Maybe I'm a bad friend. Maybe I have too many commitments. Or maybe I just weird.  I yearn for a clique that spends time together and most importantly, one that does not "disband" after awhile. Do you?
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