You have your face for life

I don’t really know how I’m getting all these hits after the skin post (besides visits from my loved ones ~ Eevonn, Nicole ^^) but I just want to thank everyone who’s taken their precious exam-study time to read my goo goo blah blah of a blog. I suppose it’s because skin concerns us all since I haven’t met anyone yet that doesn’t have any skin on em’. I mean, I’m no homicide detective or nuthin’ and seeing what they see would probably scar me for life despite all the horror movies I can stomach.

Anyway, onto make up talk since that’s what I promise y’all (it still amuses me that English classes in France teach this phrase). So yah. I never used to wear make up until before and around France when Nicole lured me to the dark side. Slowly I learnt about foundation, application, and beauty tools and now, apprentice has become master ! X-D JK. I still only wear the basics so here’s explaining what these ‘basics’ are. By the way, I apply in this order:

Quest is carrying out illegal business

Living in the city, in THIS apartment is great. Aesthetically speaking that is. The community spirit is lacking but slowly I’m getting to know the other residents who live in this building. However, what I ABSOLUTELY cannot stand is the fact that Quest is illegally carrying business in this officially ‘residential’ building aka allowing guests to stay in the Quest apartments here.

I can’t emphasise how FRUSTRATING it is to live alongside with these rude, often drunk, horrible, selfish, inconsiderate visitors and their obnoxious, plastic staff who smile and are nice to their guests but when it comes to the residents who aren’t on their payroll, their true horrid nature comes out. Recently, I mentioned that my parents have moved out from the suburbs to the city which meant that I got my piano back ! So everyday for at least one hour I’ve been practising and practising. However, I got a note from some Alex-guy (manager) saying that I was causing a nuisance and to have some consideration for the guests staying next door (for like a weekend — dude.. I have to LIVE here under your contradictory rules). Of course, I did happen to play at 3am but at the time I didn’t actually realise that the walls *are not sound proof*. So the next night I played before 12am as I assumed I would be allowed to play before that time (like last year during house warming) and again someone had the nerve to knock on my door (I don’t answer to strangers). Since when did the rules change ? Honestly, if you have some rules and policies you want us to graciously obey, could you at least advise us in advance ? Because this is total bull. I mean — DO YOU KNOW WHAT WE RESIDENTS PUT UP WITH ? I’ll give you a list !

1. Quest’s lack of accountability on their part

They complain all they like but when we complain about something to them, they totally push it aside and belittle it.

2. Drunk people on Thursday night

It’s not uncommon to see drunk people around the entrance. Worse is when they make advances. In this way, I wouldn’t recommend any families with small children staying here. There is absolutely no security around to prevent anything that could happen! It’s like an accident waiting to happen..

3. Drunk people on Friday night
4. Drunk people on Saturday night
5. People performing sexual acts in the stair well

One of the residents here walked into a couple having sex in the stair well. It’s happened more than once.

6. Babies screaming and children kicking walls

In my opinion, this is worse than listening to Claire de Lune.

7. Annoying guests

Some European guy banged on my door and actually stormed into my apartment when I opened it asking for a cork screw. This is why I never EVER open the door to strangers. EVER.

8. Being mistaken as a Quest staff

In the elevator some Russian dudes asked about room service and other amities. Besides that little tiff, they seemed nice.

9. Getting stuck the lift with 4 rowdy (fat) bogans (they even admitted to it)

The lift kept getting stuck in basement level. Scariest 10 minutes of my life. They kept trying to force the door open too. This is why the lifts look so dilapidated and old — because Quest visitors keep battering up the lifts which need CONSTANT repair (money that probably comes out of the body corporate fees). THANKS AGAIN QUEST FOR YOUR LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY !

10.  Guests smoking when it is clearly not allowed

The lifts smell like smoke from time to time and people leave their cigarette buds near and around the entrance. Disgusting. Yes, these are the kinds of people that stay here.

11. Guests making racist remarks at us

Again associated with drunk people. Racism shouldn’t be tolerated in any situation.

12. Listening to guests making inappropriate conversation

Some high teenagers were celebrating one of their friend’s 18th and having a party on level 5 or 6. I hate small talking with people who add “f—” or “s—” or “c—” to every sentence.

13. Shouting and screaming from the next door

.. amongst other inappropriate sounds.

Seriously, the list could go ON and ON. And that’s why the residents have officially submitted a complaint document to the Body Corporate so they can stop this illegal practice. If you saw you you’d be BEWILDERED by its shocking R-rated content. Conclusion: They disgust me. And I’m not going to shy away about it (that’s what they’d want me to do).

Unfortunately all I can do now is hope is that karma bites them in the butt (hard).

Skin, Skin, Skin

Over the past few months I’ve had REALLY bad acne. And the funny thing is, it never used to be a problem — not even in high school aka the ‘raging hormones’ period. I know some would be appalled by the fact that I used to only wash my face and put a bit of Olay (my dad’s “Holy Grail” product) moisturiser on it but I confess, that was my two-step skincare routine from about ages 15 to 19. I don’t think I even washed my face before age 15 ! It was only after I turned 20 that I actually started to use more products than moisturiser. Makeup too. I never used to touch any of that stuff except for special occasions like formals. Not for fear of my face becoming a dried prune one day (all those icky chemicals !), but more like due to laziness and probably ignorance too. I mean, I never had any pressure at school or anything to “pretty up”. There were no boys to impress and I didn’t really want to impress anyone. Still don’t.

But now I have succumb to this other realm (have you noticed how many skincare/beauty blogs there ARE out there ?!) and have started taking proper care of my skin.  After some heafty research about what I’m ’supposed’ to be doing and carrying out trial & error with different products to use , I’ve actually got myself my own skincare routine because trust me, everyone who has excellent skin out there is using SOMETHING other than water. I only wish I had had more guidance from the start. So if you’re a newbie to it all, I hope this helps ! Here’s detailing my “5 step skincare regime“:

My online life (I suck at coming up with titles — can you tell ?)

I’ve been doing a lot of what I’d call “proper” blogging lately aka actually writing about what’s going on in my mind and such instead of letting the photographs do the talking. I find that I write a lot better when I’m feeling ‘emotional’ rather than the desensitised, detached-self I usually am. It is contradictory to the statement to admit it ?

I also want to experiment with my blog’s content too. As in content less focused on my 101/1001. For that reason, I’ve been contemplating getting a typepad next year — a paid blog that allows me to have my own domain, more customisation (freedom !), with the same awesome blogging tools WordPress provides. Since there’s a trial period, it’s the only service I’ve really been seriously thinking about, though if any of you know of any others that you’d recommend, please share !

Another thing I was thinking about is Facebook. Does ever a day go by that we don’t think about it ? (Except for Amy !) For your average, socially-ept young adolescent, I doubt it ! Even if we’re sick or traveling, we’d try and find a few minutes of our day to log in and see if anyone’s written on our walls or poked us (lame). Well, I’ve been trying to ween myself off it, except to play Plock, and deleted over 200 “friends”. It’s kind of amusing when you get re-adds and in that case, I do re-add them cause’ I mean, they at least give a damn.

My rule of thumb is, if you wouldn’t go up to the person and say hi, then it’s unlikely you’re going to be  suddenly interested in their lives. Unless you’re a stalker. If you are, I have just three words for you that doesn’t have the word ‘love’ in it: FIND ANOTHER HOBBY. I did. (That’s a joke folks.) I know some people just add everyone they know (of) and that’s fine, but today as a 21 year old me, I realise there’s only so much time to cultivate good relationships. I don’t want to find the time for others unless you’re the author of a stunningly awesome blog haha ! So I think I have a morbid fascination of people who do that. Why do you do that thing you do ? Seriously. People are fascinating. Though, not always to me.

Blur

I had one of those all too real dreams last night where there is little distinction between reality and dream. It freaks me out because I never always know which is which.  Even now looking back, sometimes I’m not entirely sure which memories were real and which weren’t.  One of those particular ‘memories’ involved a horse at our school sneezing all over this poor girl. It was gross but funny. I think that’s another underlying reason why taking photographs is so important for me.

It’s especially  scary when I’ve had a dream about a loved one dying and I’m literally blubbering with tears. It happens a least thrice a year ! I don’t know why they’re so vivid. Even my sister says she dreams in full sound, colour, smell etc though she does tend to dream about mundane things such as eating an apple !

Well, I had a dream last night that ‘Mookxi‘ and ‘Melissa‘ (my catholic name) were split personalities and that Melissa was slowly fading away into non-existence.  Why does one split personality succumb to another ? I imagine it’s because the other is weak, and too innocent for this “harsh” world. Mookxi on the other hand is the strong, impermeable one. The one who never lets her guard down and doesn’t recognise anything or anyone from her past. Like the slates been wiped clean. Completely. This brings me back to the poem #5. I better not wish too hard.

On a less freaky topic, I bought my lovely limited edition (Hello Kitty roflmao !) Fuji polaroid, finally, along with 300 films to take on my trip ! I can’t wait till it arrives. And as soon as it does, I’ll be putting up a metaphorical tonne of pictures of the picture-taking device. They’ll be no stopping me !

From the future

Sometimes delving into the past is awful. Really awful. Especially when you realise you’re actually still stuck in this place in which you thought you had long been over.

I guess we often fool ourselves that we’re different now. Maybe it’s true. Actually, I know it’s true.  But also, there’s this horrible realisation that we should have been here a long time ago instead of now. And by ‘we’, I mean ‘me’. Because from an older and ‘wiser’ perspective, the pieces fit much better in that puzzle I thought was so enigmatic. It truly wasn’t ! I feel so ..

Haha, this is such a cryptic post. I suppose I’m being vague because I feel vulnerable. I don’t think I’ll ever show this particular side of me again, to anyone because I never want to feel like this ever again. Not that it was really worth showing. I’m shaking just at the thought of it. There are some things best left in the dark and in so many unspeakable ways, I wish it were all still a mystery.

PS. I’m in the mood for mooncake !

Moving house.

My parents are finally moving into their ‘dream house’. The kind they can be proud to show off to friends and family. So now we’re packing up old memories and putting them into large boxes. Nearly 20 years in this house in the suburbs for the hustle and bustle of the city.

I definitely feel that moving has its high and lows. Highs in terms of excitement in changing lifestyle, place, transitioning into a new period of our lives, but also low — stress, sadness and being a little ashamed of all the things we’ve been hoarding in this house. At least that’s what dad said he felt. I do believe I used to be a hoarder but never to extent of my mother and sister who even wants to keep all her high school notes of subjects she used to hate back in the day. But I stopped caring too much about having things — even old things.  I think there is a danger of being too dependent on material things and I think I hate being dependent on anything ,though deep down I’d say I’m a bit sentimental since there are some things I will never be able to part with.

Admittedly, my sister & I just got into a fight, as you do when packing up our ‘old’ lives. I think she’s in denial and I’m in denial of being in denial. However, for me — it’s just easier to try not to think about what we’re leaving behind and just help my parents in whatever way I can. She said I’m not ’sentimental’, which to be honest, didn’t really hurt coming from her. Especially as I know she can be very irrational when passively angry. But even though she says a lot of horrible things about me, I do feel a little not right. Like she threw away the ‘meaningful letter’ I wrote to her awhile back because she said it was ‘fake sentiment’ coming from me; the only kind of sentiment I feel. I told her she should say that at my funeral and she said she would. So I’d like that on the record. I mean, it may turn into a funny joke later in life.

I suppose we wouldn’t be sisters if we didn’t have arguments from time to time. I don’t pent things up you see. And this is me not penting things up.

Back to video

I’m back to video blogging by popular demand. And by ‘popular’ I mean like 3 people encouraged me to do another one. Yay X-D Haha. More 101/1001 blogging later because I’ve been taking some more photographs. SPEAKING OF PHOTOGRAPHS. Remember my 100 Strangers project ?? I bumped into Rodney (the security guard) who was my no. #4 stranger (I think) and our eyes met for a few seconds (minus all the romantic innuendo) and I think he too recognised me ! So cool. I would have said “hi” but was actually on my way to Max Brenner with a couple of friends. Nicole also thinks she saw him too. I think that’s just funny.

Just want to warn you before you press play to turn the volume down because I tend to speak quite loud (on the verge of shouting) >.< Also, I swear I’m not this fidgety in person.

IMDB’s top 250 movies

Been browsing through random people’s random lists & found a particular goal that interests me. That is, to see IMDB’s top 250 movies. I counted 54/250 that I’ve watched before coming across this list. I’d have heaps more to watch if I wanted to complete this goal X-D. Maybe for next time ?

Anyway, they are:

1. The Godfather (1972)
2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
3. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
4. Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966)
5. Pulp Fiction (1994) <— have this but haven’t watched it.
6. Casablanca (1942)
7. Schindler’s List (1993) <— have this but haven’t watched it.
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
9. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
10. Shichinin no samurai (1954)

The idiot box is so addictive @_@

TV shows I’m currently watching

Dollhouse: season 1.

Verdict: I got SO excited when I found out from my friends in the US that a new tv series by Joss Whedon was coming out so I just HAD to watch it. Unfortunately, this is definitely a disappointment. It’s not really his style at all. The plot is interesting but the script lacks its usual wit. I will probably continue watching as it is early days. Plus I like Elisha Dushku & that actor from Firefly.. Wash. The rest of the characters are .. BLAH.

Synopsis: The “Dollhouse” is a facility run by a secret (and illegal) group who have had their memories and personalities completely removed. When each doll is assigned a new mission (called engagements), they receive a new personality that is programmed to the specifications set by the “engagement.” As one of the dolls begins to piece together her past, she embarks on an extremely dangerous journey of self-discovery.

Credit:

1. http://community.livejournal.com/cool_graphix/

2. http://community.livejournal.com/dollhouse_elite/

Merlin: season 1, 2 episodes 1

Verdict: Surprisingly not as lame as it looked when I first saw the ad for it ! The first 20 minutes of the pilot wasn’t particularly memorable but so far I really like it ! The characters are funny {and cute ! *drools*} and it’s entertaining. Don’t expect it to be historic or anything as the set is totally not dark ages and you’ll hear “dad”, “getting sacked”, and “hey guys!” thrown around quite a bit.

Synopsis: Merlin, an exciting fantasy series, takes viewers inside the world of Camelot but in a 21st century manner. Before Merlin (Colin Morgan) and Arthur (Bradley James) were legends, they were young men hungry for adventure. In search of love and their own true destinies, the duo make their share of mistakes along the way. [Told you it sounds lame X-D But give it a go !]

Credits:

1. http://foxythang2000.livejournal.com/