Working together for a living planet

Thursday, December 22, 2011

sneak peak: dance for good health, peace & joy 2011

here's something to share to brighten-up your thursday morning peeps: flash mob— proud mary burnin' line dance, choreographed by sobrielo philip gene; in conjunction of the event dance for good health, peace & joy 2011 ❥




eventhough i was hidden behind the christmas tree (dunno whether you could see me on the right of the video), it does not matter at all i know i was... ecstatic! i was so touched to see the joy on line dancers face that evening ツ

and the thought of having fun meeting and dancing with old and new friends from everywhere.............

watch one more here~




eventually i could visibly seen in the second video. hint: second row from the front! more updates very soon, peeps. at the meantime enjoy watching us line dancing..........

Saturday, December 03, 2011

waiting... and waiting.... and waiting

its just when someone says they are going to call and so you spend the whhhoooollllleeeeee day waiting on the phone to ring. which it doesn't. no matter how much you stare at it. it doesn't. so you think if you trick it and leave it somewhere where you're not... like in your handbag, it just might. but nope. you threaten, plead, cajole, beg, bribe and even pray to the gods of telecommunication. but..... nada.

nope....... still nuthin.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

my nuffnang story

alright, guess let me start by telling all you people of when i first heard the word 'nuffnang'. i am very proud to say i may be one of the first to know about it, thanks to the penang bloggers meet i joined on 25 february 2007. nuffnang's co-founder was one of the attendees. i did hear they talked in chinese and sometimes word 'nuffnang' while congratulating timothy. ok, fine. stupid me, i didn't even ask anyone what was that all about.

not too long after that nuffnang went live on the worldwide web. i was like- occay, this is what nuffnang all about. i can't remember the date but i know i was one of the first to register too.

its good to be a nuffnanger. there are so many activities lined-up for everyone no matter young or old. i had many experiences. not forgetting meeting top bloggers and learned many things from them. from then on i never turn back. let's have a glance seeing my journey with nuffnang (arranged accordingly by category)..........................................


― sometime in june '08, this was the first nuffnang event i attended. invited bloggers were allowed to bring a guest, so i brought along my sister with me. it was a good explosion for her as well. even she expanded her social network friends through this event. she's a photographer, so you see how she could take an advantage from it.


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― didn't i say earlier nuffnang is for everyone? its event with friso was a kind of family day. it involved families with young kids. this time i brought megat. for puteri, she was too shy to go with us even though rob asked me to bring her... hah! megat did have so much fun with the other kids- dancing, play-along, contest and many more. i was lucky enough to win RM100 mph voucher by being one of the winners of the 10 best written pre-event blog posts courtesy of friso!




― from the event title it clearly said music totally involved. we had to dress-up as a music icon. my hair was short that time so i thought halle berry(?) the best *glurp* for this one, yes, of course puteri was interested and followed me. she also wore something nice- hip-hop/funky, maybe miley? one thingy is she's a bit shy to snap pics. so here's diese aka saloma with moi...


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― since this event was something about financial thingy i asked my blogger friend marcus to join me. we first met at a sharing session by nuffnang of course. i could say we became good friends. anyway you will know what i meant as you read through this post till the end ツ

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― diese was my guest for this event. vaseline launched some new line of products. and guess what people after i first tried the many types of lotions given in the goodie bag, believe it or not i keep using vaseline until now. it makes my skin smooth and soft.


― i could say i am proud here again that i am one of the bloggers who attended nuffnang's first sharing session. it was held at the apartment downtown, with guest bloggers, redmummy and sultan muzaffar. they shared some blogging tips and whats not. apart from that we got to get to know each other by introducing ourselves.


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― i knew a cousin, yaya already moved to the city for good. so invited her to join me for this session. besides i also aware for sure her mom likes it that we were trying to keep the bonding of our family ties. we are definitely not first cousins though. and thanks to my invite yaya joined nuffnang thereafter for the sake of getting some extra incomes.


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pic courtesy of sawanila.com




― mamma mia was one of the first premiere screening invites i received. its special as nuffnangers could bring not 2 as usual, but 3 guest. it was screened in gurney plaza. so both puteri and megat tagged along. i was worried at first though whether they gonna like that kind of movie- you know, abba music was during my childhood days not theirs. they love it! until they looked for their gong gong's old record and insisted him to play the musics... *phew*




pic courtesy of 5Xmom




― as soon as i got the invite for madagascar 2 via email i was so happy planning to surprise megat. i was really sure kids like megat loves the movie. as usual it was during not just weekdays but school days. once i fetch him from school i told him to get ready after lunch. he wore the clothes i prepared. see, clever me make him wear like a zoo-keeper... ahaks! he did of where we were going. i told him to just follow. the best thing was the screening was held in tgv in midvalley while we were living in kuala kangsar! to cut the story short he was really surprised when we reached there and thanked me so much for bringing me over. he smiled from ear-to-ear. i made him sleep on our way back home as he still has to go to school the day after.




― i didn't dare to bring any of my kids for this movie. i just thought it was suitable for adults. more over we were in kuala kangsar. since i knew i got some other errands to do in kl that time i accepted the invite for this movie. what a co-incident my ex-boyfriend happened to have something to do in the city too. so i got him to bring me there. we became good friends, i believe nothing harmful for us to go watching movies together. it was very long time ago since the last we did that anyway. in my mind, i only thought the movie got something to do with his job, so maybe he could learned a bit from it too... :)


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― this movie screening was special, mister potato co-sponsored it. we each have been given two canisters each of the mister potato chips. kewl... huh?! i brought along cousin nivin. i was very much aware she's the right person for me to bring.


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there were more other nuffnang events i attended. but i didn't blog about it- bloggers' blocked happened eventually especially towards the end of last year. i managed to post some sets of pictures anyway. i tweet a lot too sometimes- its a micro-mini blog right? on the other hand its one of the easiest way to update too, hehee... by the way here's some i could recalled~


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nuffnang sharing session at modestos capsquare



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gatsby deodorant street fair



and the recent one:


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a night of stars with astro b.yond IPTV!




i know i know this blog has been lacked of updates. like i mentioned earlier, bloggers' blocked happened towards last year. plus i got job offer and moved to kl in january. i realized i was a bit lay-zeee then. that must be the big reasons why i never got the chance to have advertorial job. not even selected as a glitterati plus. not even have the chance to go to the first nuffnang asia-pacific blog awards. not just that i know very well i don't have many followers here. this also the results i didn't earn as much as some bloggers until hundreds and thousands of ringgits. but i did promise myself to brighten-up my blog again once things settle-down in kl. i will also try my very best to make it a point to join and be active again in blogger events organized by nuffnang. well to tell you the truth i dunno many local bloggers much myself. i am a lone ranger unless i get to ask someone to tag along. can't blame me for writing this blog in english though. i have been doing it since i first blog more than six years ago. it started as an online journal, nothing more than that. nuffnang is like a place for me to have fun for myself, and sometimes shared whatever i got with my loved ones... ♡

if we looked back, i lived in kuala kangsar, my hometown. if that time i can make the initiative to travel all the way to kl, also to penang to enjoy events by nuffnang, i should be able to do it more now. yes, other bloggers were truly surprised when they heard i came from kualé (kangsor). amazing? not for me, i am used to it already. besides i believe in the quotes: if there's a will, there's always a way...

now let me tell y'all my daughter, puteri is a registered member of nuffnang and churp churp too! she's in the mid of having her spm exams now. it was last month that i made my first trip to nuffnang office. i ordered 2 churpie plushies, one for moi and the other for puteri. i surprised her by sending it via pos ekspres along with a good luck card on thursday, few days before her exam started. according to mom, puteri was really surprised and smiled all day long... and when i came back to kualé last saturday (it was a surprise too), went straight-up to puteri's room to look for her, she was having her nap while hugging churpie. i should have taken a picture! i am so happy to see puteri loves her surprise exam gift~




come 16 December 2011, 500 bloggers from around the asia-pacific region will flock to kuala lumpur, malaysia for the nuffnang asia-pacific blog awards 2011 in putrajaya marriott. the Awards aims to not only honour the region's best bloggers, but also to bring together blogger communities from across asia-pacific. the nuffnang asia-pacific blog awards is brought to you by volkswagen malaysia and putrajaya marriott.

Monday, November 14, 2011

it's a brand new day

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leave back all your worries and troubles of yesterday,
make yourself a silent promise to make today a better day.

now my dear friend, a brand new day lays ahead of you,
face it with pride, because it is a gift and is totally new.

may all your goals and ambitions for the day be set,
i wish you have an amazing day and a night without regrets.

good morning peeps. have a grand day!

Friday, November 11, 2011

11-11-11

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sup peeps!...

so everyone have been talking about this unique and exclusive date i could say: especially quite a number of couples tying the knot.

some of you guys may be heading or already in the mid of partying. and here i am all alone today on this historical date. at first i thought wanna go out for drinks alone and try whatever. but on an another thought i am still down with what had happened recently. how dare he do this to me. now leave me alone...

i will be out of the city from tomorrow anyway ― far out. reason: clearing my annual leaves. i might be joining my family until wednesday or thursday. there's no proper planning of what i am gonna do for the rest of the week actually. anyone need company? this mind and souls prefer a place that's really out of place i.e. no hustle and bustle. whatever holla me.

enjoy your 11-11-11 people... i am signing off from here.

Friday, November 04, 2011

google "do a barrel roll" right now!

the most fun on the internet right now: go to google and search for "do a barrel roll" (no quotes). whee!...

thanks to @nytimesbits.

Saturday, October 08, 2011

the day i feel blessed i have my own place...

the day is almost over. i should have gone to a line dance party that is being held now somewhere on the other part of the city. and to think there's no more rapidkl bus services by the time the party over, i decided not to go with some good excuses i.e. grand auntie just passed away last thursday and that, i have to give some due respect to her. in fact links, pics, about it have been posted and shared in my fb page. so my line dancing friends should have known the proof there... *winks* i am not keen in taking taxi as i find the prices are damn ridiculous! but if in certain case maybe. i don't want to take the risk of going back home alone on a taxi at late night. would you, ladies?

anyhow i did text someone dearie who apparently stays near the hall ― told her about the party and my intention to sleep-over at her place after the party is over. i have promised myself, if ok, i will go off as early as i can... there was no response after an hour. so i told myself if by 2:00 pm or 2:30 pm there's still nothing from her, i would better stay at home. and now is close to 7 hours since i asked her. i doubt she's into the idea. if not for sure she answers me immediately or so. its alright. i know where i stand.

luckily i managed myself accordingly last 3 weeks ― when i attended a company annual dinner, that was held near her place as well. and that... will be written in an another blog post.

i stayed with my lil' sister when i first started to work here in the city last end january. it was not easy. her place is very far. i had to follow her to a lrt station and take it from there and the list went on... this is the time where i feel blessed i have my own place. although i am sharing with a friend, but still, i am all on my own... one of the advantages of staying alone is our life and whatever we do can be more flexible. i totally agree with earl's 101 reasons to stay single. his points are all oh so true!

on the other hand, yes, i have to be alert no matter whenever or wherever i am.

to all single gals and ladies out there, here's an important message i shared from a fb friend―




be safe peeps wherever you are... xx

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

the day malaysia should be proud of saladin

sorry can't help myself ― this news is just too mind-blowing!

i was browsing online, and once in a while of course checked my fb. when suddenly stunned and still feel very happy and proud to find out that the "saladin" animated tv series have just been nominated for the international emmy awards!


Saladin.tv



my lil' bro was one of the crew handled the voice casting and direction, music scoring, sound design and mixing.

this is the freaking emmys people! tv's highest honour. just to be nominated out of thousands of children's programmes... malaysia should be proud of it.

well done team imaginex ― "saladin" sounds great! read more here and here.

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*this sponsored post is brought to you for sportsbettingspot.com by kuE

Friday, September 30, 2011

friday favourite: meet coffee lovers...

since coffee lovers have been talking about the 'national coffee day', here for my friday favourite i wanna share blog links of other coffee lovers, in no particular orders:


Thursday, September 29, 2011

the day i knew there's national coffee day...

its all thanks to social media these days news spread-out in no seconds at all... if not how did i find-out its 'national coffee day' today!

i tweet/posted on fb the other morning asking about the truth of bombing news in subang(?) i read via my twitter. an uncle responded in less than 20 minutes that it was a combined explosions of leaked commercial gas in the gas storage underneath the ground floor of the empire shopping gallery in subang jaya.

so its the national coffee day today. americans are scrambling to grab their free cup of coffee. although its nothing happened here, i as a coffee lover ensure i drank coffee and nothing else, just for the joy of celebrating the day. nonetheless for a coffee lover like me, everyday is a coffee day for us anyway.

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My conspiracy theory is that the big coffee chains started it as a smart way of promotion — hey, there is a food day, so why not a National Coffee Day? It sounds fun anyway!

So sorry, in short I don’t have an answer for you on the origin but if you do know about the history of this event please drop a note below.


happy coffee day everyone!...


the day we gotta start to do the wobble...

hey, people of the world... good morning!

it's my lansing day! let's do the wobble as your morning work-out, peeps! ツ it's so easy everyone can do it... wohooo! ♫♩♬




*the wobble is basically an absolute beginner line dance level...

Monday, September 26, 2011

surprise, surprise!...

it was early in the morning today when i was already busy at my desk, a colleague who just came-in told me that i was wearing the same with ula, one of our team members. i was like: "haaa(?!!!)..." freaked-out! panic! then she continued, "same colour, black and white..." *phew*

what a tremendous surprise people... ula and i were wearing same colour, and what a nice match in two different styles. check-out our shoes too! one in white and another in black... LOL! ツ


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i dunno what will be happened if i were to come the same with other people. i will surely feel embarrassed i tell you... i positively could say one of us will go out of the office immediately and headed straight to the nearest mall to buy a new clothes so that we won't look the same again hehee... women you know... we are so different from guys, who won't really care about this i think. correct me if i am wrong.

so tell me people whether you faced this incident before especially same clothes... hah! please, do share it with us...

Sunday, September 25, 2011

sneak peek: AZ

alright it was supposed to be a great and wonderful day today too like the day before. but something came up and it has some complications. i need some time to write about it and surely will share with the people of the blogosphere soon.

to sam, hang-in there. been there, done that. i know how you feel. i am here when you need me... xx

at the meantime here's a sneak peak of anuar zain's performance last night. they simply placed him last, and see all the gediks, poyos, everything LOL! CEO, COO, all can't say anything cuz it was time for us to loosen-up! even Mr E was so sporting to join us at the dance floor *winks*

enjoy the video although its just a very short one―




Saturday, September 24, 2011

#SayaGenerasi

it was earlier in the evening when i came back from shopping at bukit bintang, i realized everyone were tweeting about their childhood life with hashtag #SayaGenerasi. at first i read some. then i thought i must do it too. i dunno who started it basically. but don't you think it's kinda cool to remember the childhood memories we had. here's mine in the order i posted/tweet~

  1. learned music with kak ina's father, cikgu razak. and tomorrow, ada ke bang nuor gonna remember her, huhuu... #SayaGenerasi



  2. wonders whether t-put a.k.a. rozy remembers: a-ha, bros, curiosity killed the cat, rick astley... #SayaGenerasi

  3. berdandan dua, panjanggggg... when she was in standard one #SayaGenerasi

  4. always remember her standard one teacher, cikgu sabariah: "daba-li-u [W]" #SayaGenerasi

  5. belajar mengaji with hamidah's (her batch in primary) mom. balik jalan kaki, selalu kena tinggal dek her cousin bros, sudahnya deme kena marah hahaa... mike ingat tak abang ayi #SayaGenerasi

  6. also remembers: jem & the hologram, she-ra the princess of power, punky brewster, smurf, little house on the prairie, to name some... #SayaGenerasi

  7. played konda-kondi, galah panjang, police sentry... budak sekarang? jom Nuffnang ajak bloggers play all these someday... #SayaGenerasi

  8. don't think kids these days know what is 'ais kepal' (iced balls). but she remembers ali mamak didn't have to use the bowl to shape it! kan?... ;P #SayaGenerasi

  9. so proud of her non-muslim friends who can read & write jawi, thanks to kelas jawi in primary school #SayaGenerasi

  10. was a die-hard fan of donny & marie osmonds: daddykins had to play the cassette non-stop for our balik kampung journey from johor to kuale #SayaGenerasi

i in fact shared the same in my fb wall too. as everyone knows when we posted something interesting there sure you will get lotsa responses. so if you have something to share about your childhood life too, do let me know by leaving comments here.


Wednesday, September 21, 2011

sharing is caring

...knows there's no such thingy as xmas in sept (xmas in july, yes) but who cares she glad she makes many ppl not just loved ones, happy 2day ❤

i tweet that last night.

we have all heard from an early age… ‘sharing is caring’. toys, ice cream, a hug… you name it.

in today’s world, sharing is all about the ‘like’, ‘tweet’, ‘+1′ and ‘stumbles’. as such, first, i email to all the team members in the office of the subway malaysia vouchers i received. as i find only some of them interested i shared about it to the outside world too via fb and twitter. they were all gone by evening!


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it was subway malaysia’s fault of delivering our delivery order late by close to an hour on last 2 fridays. i was rather angry as many times i warned them that they gonna served foreign customers! and when i called the store the other day to ask for the original receipt, how lucky i was i got to speak with the owner itself. she apologized to me of what had happened. thus she gave me quite a number of their vouchers. i kept some for my boss too. and when i handed the vouchers to him, he thanked me. and of course we had a quick talk of how on earth i was able to get those vouchers. not one. not two. but a lot. its really quite a sum that i have to share. if not, don’t tell me i must eat subway sandwiches everyday till the due date… ahaks! yes, many people asked: how you got it? don’t ask. how many do you have? don’t ask. if you wish to have it, i will give it to you. but of course i don’t have any now. i only have one left anyway for moi. that’s what my boss advised me— to keep one for myself since i took care and handled everything well… he also commented jokingly that i may look small but fierce (kecil-kecil cili padi*, you know?) and i have a big heart. aw… thank you so much sir…

*kecil-kecil cili padi, is a malay expressions literally means: do not underestimate its hotness though the bird pepper is small in size. so size doesn’t matter?

alright, talking about sharing, when we share, we break out of the boundaries of our ego and recognise the humanity of the other. sharing breeds inter-dependence, happiness and harmony. for a planet with limited resources, sharing is the way forward.

there are three kinds of givers in the world: the stone, the sponge and the honeycomb. to get anything out of a stone, you must hammer it; even then it only yields chips and sparks. to make a sponge part with the water it holds, you must squeeze it. the harder you squeeze the more you get. then there is the honeycomb, from which sweetness overflows. this unattributed saying beautifully sums up how we humans abounding with attachment, and fraught with emotion, share what we consider our own.


Wednesday, August 17, 2011

wordless wednesday

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pic courtesy of cousin yatt



Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Message to all the rioters in London & surrounding areas~

You wanna be big men and fight to the death? well get your sorry little arses on the next plane to Afghanistan and stand alongside real men, they're called soldiers and they are fighting a war unlike you bunch of pathetic wastes of space! Copied from a friend. Please repost if you agree. Lets stand together on this!


Saturday, July 02, 2011

i went to kuching again!

it was on the same day last week at stampark hall, i attended the line dance workshop by simon ward, an aussie choregrapher! it was a full day event, where by a dinner & dance themed swingin' 70's was held at night.


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pic courtesy of lee chiang hong


and as you know, when we talked about theme parties, i likeeeee... i got my auntie to sew my dress again!

maybe i shall blog more about the trip soon... as i arrived kuching two days ealier to have some time on my own. this blog post was meant to be a quick one anyway. i am out shortly for a bloggers' event i missed for quite some time...

i will leave you all with a performance video at the dinner and dance, performed by my jakarta line dancing friends. enjoy!




Friday, July 01, 2011

friday favourite: how to make money from your blog?

you already know i started every friday as “friday favourite” this year. i maybe share the best article which i got in internet during the week. it doesn’t matter whether it is old or new post. i just share it if it’s worth sharing. it also could be anything or whatever that i like to share with all of you. today i am going to share the following article on make money blogging with you.

most of the blogger (not every blogger) wants to make money with their blog. but it’s not so easy to make money with blog for every blogger. go here to see some of the opportunities that i got. so i wanted to write on how to make money with a blog. so i was surfing the internet to know more about it. and then i found lotsa good posts on it. but i found this post from StevePavlina.com very interesting and helpful. actually it’s not an ordinary blog post. i could tell you it’s a thesis post on make money blogging. this post can easily be as an e-book. he wrote every single details on when and how a blogger can make money from his/her blog. it’s a very long post but very useful information. if you just start to read you won’t be able to stop yourself from reading that post. don’t believe me(?)...

every blogger who want to make money with his or her blog should read the blog post completely. i know many of you may already read the post.

so if you think your blog also have some awesome post i may like, please share it with link in the comment box or email me. if i really like that may be my next friday’s favourite post.

i am sure you will like the link i recommended above. so if you write do share your feelings with me. thanks.


Thursday, June 30, 2011

Promote Your Business With Branders.com

Ever go into a shop to buy something and they give you a pen with their company logo on it? I think I have about 10 pens with logos on them on my desk right now. People love getting free stuff with advertisements on them, I know I do. As a blogger, I would say we would love to get free key chains, and note books, and stickers, yadaaa... yadaaa... I don’t know what ever happened to all of those things but it was fun to collect them. It was like Halloween for us except we weren’t getting candy and we weren’t wearing costumes. Ever wonder where they buy all of those promotional products? Well, I can’t speak for them but this website Branders.com has all of those goodies for your small and large business.


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Branders.com is one of the leading company in the promotional products industry. They have a great website where you can customize your own products online and in real-time. With thousands of products in their shop you will find the right item for your company. I highly recommend them.

If personalized ballpoint pens are your thing then you are in luck because you can get those for as little as 25 cents. That’s actually a really good deal. I personally like it when businesses give away things like USB memory sticks because those things are expensive to buy. But don’t stop there because they have many different categories of products you could buy like food – candy, chocolates etc. Apparel – long/short sleeve t-shirts, baby clothes, workout clothes etc. They even have 1GB mp3 players for as low as $13.75 each that you can put your logo on to hand out to your guests at events in a goody bag. They look like ipod’s, that’s pretty cool.

They have so many things that are appropriate for your business that the possibilities are virtually endless. You just have to look at their catalog to find out what you are interested in giving away for free.

Personally maybe I’d try to go with green bag because everyone can use it for shopping but it’s totally up to the business and their advertising budget.

This kind of thingy reminds me when I bought some clothes at Giordano. I brought my own shopping bag and they gave me some rebates, apart from the discount promotions they were having. Aren't that cool people even though for 5%...

*this sponsored post is brought to you for Branders.com by kuE



Monday, May 09, 2011

what a joke, sir!...

this is a true story, happened earlier today at around 5.45 pm ~

i was all ready to go back, with my handbag on my shoulder... co-incidence my boss just walk-out of his office with some papers in hand; then when he came back again in less than a minute, a colleague was like, "ehem, ehem!..."

and the other colleague called and said to my boss, "sir, i thought you have more things for shaira to do?" they all must be jealous or something duh!...

"oh, ya!... i guess she needs to stay for another hour or so...", my boss jokingly told us while looked at his wrist watch. then everyone laughed! hehee...

yea... what a joke, sir!


Saturday, April 16, 2011

#4sqDay 2011

haluuu... people of the world!

this is a live update from frontera sol of mexico!


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its #4SqDay today! foursquare day is on april 16th: are you celebrating too?

i understand that foursquare day is a community-driven event that was started last year by nate bonilla-warford and jessica barnett. walter elly has recently joined their team.

most companies usually only get to celebrate themselves once a year, on the day their company was founded or product launched. for foursquare, that’s in mid-march, when SXSW hosts its annual tech (interactive) extravaganza in austin, texas. not content with just one day though, the new york city-based startup has been trying to get users and businesses on board with the movement to make april 16th the official “foursquare day” (get it? four squared equals 16. someone in marketing is a clever devil...).

and for updating my 4sq from here, i managed to unlock the #4sqDay 2011 Badge!... w00tz! ツ

so if you are in klang valley, come-on down now to celebrate too! once you registered, you will receive a set of such a kewl 4sq Swags from the organizer. get more info about this meet-up here.


Friday, April 15, 2011

friday favourite: rachael mcenaney

i believe this is my second friday favourite! sowey there was none last week as i enjoyed myself in jakarta through-out the whole weekend... w00tz! i wanna sit down and write about it someday. so watch this space for the updates ya. or better still, i have not even upload the pics on my flickr yet; but to those of you people who is on my fb list, i am sure you have seen some of the pics that i have posted... ツ

basically my trip to jakarta was all about 'lansing'. and talking about lansing (line dancing), do read more about the benefits here. some people still had the old thinking that line dancing is for older generations, maybe because when line dancing started it was almost all country music. but now since most styles of music is catered for it including rock & roll, swing, pop and chart music; many young people have come into the picture.






line dancers around the world knows rachael mcenaney. in fact she is one of my favourite line dance choreographers. she was born with a family background of ballroom and latin champions will celebrate her 30th birthday this august. this year is probably her best year in terms of achievement and awards. will she reach higher ground? we're sure she will, especially with her love of dance. since 4, she has discovered and trains in many different forms of dance including ballet, tap, jazz, ballroom, latin, salsa, hip hop and many others.

rachael finished college in 1999 with excellent GCES results and A levels in sports studies, french & german. rachael began teaching linedance in york, england at the young age of 15 and she completed her first competition at the UCWDC european championships in 1999 and emerged as a star the following year. since then, she has won numerous accolades and awards for her instruction and choreography (see her achievement & awards here). according to her, she was inspired by at least the following personalities: rob fowler, pedro machado, jo thompson szymanski and paul mcadam among others.






among most of her choreographies that became local line dancers' favourite: jesse james, BCO, snap your fingers, and ooh! i like that. i practiced with my lansing friends to the latter last week in pj, and ooh! i like that... we had so much fun and laughter...

"the dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expressed in words or in any other way than by dancing... there are times when the simple dignity of movement can fulfill the function of a volume of words. there are movements which impinge upon the nerves with a strength that is incomparable, for movement has power to stir the senses and emotions, unique in itself. this is the dancer's justification for being, and his reason for searching further for deeper aspects of his art." ~ doris humphrey, 1937

"dancers are an admirable bunch of people. the way they work. the stress is extraordinary. it's a difficult career. i think it's hellish; the fact that they are over the hill as they're emotionally maturing. that calls for a terrific strength of character." ~ lady d. macmillan


Sunday, April 03, 2011

alice in wonderland costumes

i happened to want to attend a fairy tale line dance party two weeks ago... when alice in wonderland wandered around my mind ever since i first knew about the party. it also made me wonder if there is such a thing as a alice in wonderland costume out there?

after some research, not only did i find some alice costumes, but also found out loads of interesting stuff about where the story comes from.

the animated film alice in wonderland that i was watching made it's premier way back in 1951 and was produced by walt disney but the original story comes from the book alice's adventures in wonderland which was written way back in 1865 by an english author called charles lutwidge dodgson under the pseudonym lewis carroll.

the book is basically about a girl named alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantastic world populated by creatures that have human like features.

many of the main characters of alice in wonderland and through the looking-glass, a book written later by lewis carroll have made their way into popular culture and thus there are also many fancy dress costumes based on alice in wonderland and through the looking-glass.

in some more detail, the main characters and where you can find the costumes are listed below:






alice in wonderland costumes

the character of alice often said to be based on alice liddell, a child friend of dodgson's. but dodgson himself said many times that his 'little heroine' was not based on any real child, but was entirely fictional. alice in the books is a logical girl, even pedantic, especially with humpty dumpty in the second book. according to through the looking-glass, she is seven and a half years old. alice in wonderland takes place on may 4th, alice liddell's birthday. through the looking glass takes place on november 4th, her half-birthday and alice even says that she is "seven-and-a-half - exactly."

alice is often shown wearing a pale blue knee-length dress with a white pinafore overtop, although the dress originally was yellow in the nursery aAlice", the first coloured version of alice's adventures in wonderland, that you can find in many alice in wonderland costumes. her blonde hair is held back with a wide black ribbon, and because of this they are now commonly called "alice bands".

the one that i wore was specially tailor-made for me by an aunt back in hometown. i was there about two weeks before the party. none of the local tailors willing to sew the dress. then i remembered that my aunt is the one whom i know that is really good in sewing. trust me people, i just showed her this pic and what an amazing job she did! i, as her niece of course was really proud wearing the dress that day... ツ



the white rabbit costume

the white rabbit appears at the very beginning of the book alice's adventures in wonderland, he wears a waistcoat, and mutters "oh dear! oh dear! i shall be too late!" alice eventually follows him down the rabbit hole into wonderland. the rabbit shows up again towards the end of the book, as a herald-like servant of the king and queen of hearts.

there are many white rabbit costumes and fancy dress outfits on the web and many even have waist coats, even the rabbit from playboy has a waistcoat and many can be used if you cannot find a "real" white rabbit costume.






the queen of hearts costume

the queen of hearts in alice and wonderland is a foul-tempered monarch, that carroll himself pictured as "a blind fury", she is quick to pass death sentences at the slightest offence. her most famous line in the book and one which she repeats often, is "off with their heads!"

the queen of hearts costumes are some of the best looking fancy dress outfits i have ever seen, even if you are not planning on a alice in wonderland theme, you could use these costumes just to be a queen of whatever!



the king of hearts

the king of hearts, when compared to the queen of hearts, is pretty moderate in the wonderland government. for example, when the queen, who enjoys ordering people to be beheaded, attempts to have alice executed because she was unable to answer who is lying down in front of her, the king of hearts reminds the queen that she is only a child.



other characters in alice and wonderland include and some of them shouldn't be too difficult to find generic costumes:

  • the mouse

  • the dodo

  • the lory

  • the eaglet

  • the duck

  • bill the lizard

  • the caterpillar

  • the duchess

  • the cheshire cat

  • the hatter

  • the march hare

  • the dormouse

  • the knave of hearts

  • the gryphon

  • the mock turtle


although tweedledee, tweedledum, humpty dumpty, and the jabberwock are often thought to be characters in alice in wonderland, they actually come from through the looking-glass, but are sometimes included in film versions of the book.

anyway i hope that if you are looking for fancy dress costumes from alice in wonderland, i have in some way made the task easier as well as filled you in on a few facts from the story!