Merry Christmas

... And Happy New Year!

The Idiot's Guide to Hua Hin

My family and I love Hua Hin. We take weekend trips to that fabulous white-sand beach almost annually. It's a 2-hour drive away from Bangkok, the roads are recently paved so it's an easy drive (a plus). The seafood there is great, it's less touristy than Pattaya or Phuket (another plus!), but most of the better hotels are located far, faraway from downtown Hua Hin, so some sort of a vehicle is essential (oh-uh for the tourists).

Food:

It's probably universally acknowledged that people prefer to eat seafood when they go to the beach. Therefore, the restaurants that are going to be mentioned are mostly seafood-centric. (These are the restaurants that I remember about and seem more special than other ones. So KFC and Burger King won't be mentioned here.)

Sawasdee Restaurant - located at the heart of downtown Hua hin, directly opposite this hotel which I forgot the name of, and with all its old pictures and claims of famous people having eaten there, this is definitely a tourist trap IMO. We used to like this place a lot back in the old days, but now its services and the food are mediocre at best.

All Seasons - located right next to Sawasdee. Caters to foreigners and tourists mostly, offers international cuisine. Better services and better food than Sawasdee. I recommend their pizzas and deep fried seafood platter :)

Breakfast at AKA resort - I don't remember the name of the restaurant anymore, but there's only 1 breakfast place at AKA so it shouldn't be that difficult to find. Prices are SO jacked up there but their breakfast is simply divine. The best blueberry pancakes I ever had. Good juice and coffee too.

Chom Talay - seafood restaurant near the Sheraton. Admittedly this is probably another tourist trap, but a lot of locals eat there too. We got a table near the beach, the salty wind felt so good on my face. The baked scallops and the tom yum goon were awesome, but the Pepsi they served was lukewarm and disgusting. The tab wasn't so great when it arrived at our table. There was some confusion over the bill and they definitely overcharged us.

The Deck at Sheraton - the continental buffet breakfast was pretty decent on our first day there, but the quality and quantity definitely dropped the next day (a Monday), when most of the hotel guests had left. The dinner entrees (as well as the appetizers actually) were definitely overpriced and, in some cases, mediocre would have been a praise for them. The dessert sucked. Services were nonexistent, and the waitors looked downright sullen and hostile. The worst part was when this manager (a farang) came and smilingly serviced the other tables, turned around, and saw me scowling at him (we had been trying to get the wait staff's attention for the past 20 minutes and were ignored repeatedly), and promptly turned away instead of coming over to ask what was wrong. Again, there was confusion over the bill, and this dish that sucked the most (Lime Chicken, if I can remember correctly) ended up costing 490 baht++. It tasted more like grilled charcoal more than anything else.

Accomodations: (these hotels cost more than what I can personally afford, but that's the best thing about traveling with your family -- they pay the bills):

Hilton Hua Hin - at the southern end of Hua Hin, this is actually quite far from downtown as well as from Cha-Am beach and other places. If you're driving it will take you an extra 20 minutes to get here after reaching Hua Hin.

Pros:
-private white-sand beach, well-kept

-relatively good food
-abundance of cute sea creatures like crabs and hermit crabs
Cons:
-too far
-the oldest of the 3 hotels that are being compared
-so not special I don't remember much about it

AKA resort and spa: Owned and operated by a Japanese designer, this nice little boutique resort has got style. Went here in September '07, and I have almost nothing but fond memories of this place.
Pros:
-cute little villa with your own private swimming pool
-great food, really really good services
-the rooms were so adorable - comfy beds and lemongrass incense
-quiet, relaxing atmo
-very un-touristy
-classy
-really good breakfast
Cons:
-room rates
-in the mountains (chances of frolicking in the sea is next to zero)
-location - oh gawd it was so hard to find this place
-definitely need a car
-hard to find parking space after their tiny parking lot is filled up

Sheraton Hua Hin: at the very northern end of Hua Hin, this hotel has been operating for less than 3 years and is the newest of the three. Famous for their rooms with private entryways into the swimming pool. We stayed there this time.
Pros:
-closest to the Hua Hin airport
-shortest drive from Bangkok
-new-ish facilities
-really good swimming pool
-private white-sand beach
Cons:
-the wait staff
-room rates
-faraway from downtown
-food just wasn't worth the bill
-more touristy than AKA

Picturefest :)

AKA

Fangirls scare me

I'm intimidated by the crazy, frenzied, and irrational female species dubbed "fangirls." They emit their high-pitched screams at their idols (who really could care less) and resort to completely absurd behaviors like tattooing their favorite lines or actors' names on their bods. Ten years (or even less) from now, they're going to laugh themselves silly at how ridiculous they once were.
I know I'm being terribly cynical, but, come on, what kind of a sane person would do this? -->

and all for a fictional character too.

Yes I know Edward Cullen was a hell of a hot vampire in Twilight, but still. It's not like he's even REAL.

And Robert Pattinson's cute, but not even that hot. He would probably play a good Edward, but it's funny because I thought Edward would've looked better than Rob Pattinson as I was reading the book. Oh well.

His crazily-gelled hair turns me off. I think I liked him better as Cedric Diggory.

BluebloodTV: Cat adopts rabbit (Awwa cute)

Well, technically it's not BluebloodTV cuz obviously I didn't make this video... but whatev. This is just the cutest thing EVER. Snaggle Puss totally rocks those maternal instincts

Can't beat the system

Oh fuck.
Boxtorrents has just made my life that much more difficult :(

Even tho it was probably my fault in the first place for leeching (downloading) so much of their stuff without seeding (uploading) much... but then, isn't that what everyone does?
We wait for whatever file we wanted on a P2P network to finish downloading, and then we close off the connection before it starts to seed to others, so we don't waste our bandwidth on others?
I suppose that's all very selfish of me and I deserve for "being warned" (meaning you don't get to leech at all for one week intially, and you have to seed until your up/dl ratio improves)... But then, it all seems SO tyrannical of them. Fuckin hypocrites... It's not like the administrators of Boxtorrents provide the files themselves, it's the nice saintly users who do. And all other major P2P sites let you download all that you want...

To try to beat the system and win, I attempted to create a new account with another email address, different user name/pw and all that. For a while I thought it worked, until just now I tried to sign in under that new account and it failed, saying that account was deleted. I think I knew this was going to happen since Boxtorrents explicitly said "one account per person for lifetime" but still... *pouts*

Jack was nice enough to offer to leech for me for days until my ratio improves, but that's not the point. The point is, who the hell do those Boxtorrents ppl think they are? The admin sit on their high pedestals and dictate and say shit like "I would also like to take this opportunity to point out that our Offers section is made public for people to post useful comments. Any users posting stupid/useless comments (especially 'approve this' ) will be warned" even though it is because of its users that it is able to survive on the Net. Stupid people.

Fiiiiine, I'll just switch over to BTPlus or BTchina or one of those nicer sites then... if nothing else, I could always just revert back to Foxy and take the risk of getting bad files.

*fumes*

All that glorious time wasted in the computer lab...

Since my school campus is reeeeally boring, my friends and I spend the majority of our time on-campus sitting on our asses in the computer lab in Stats Building.
It seems like a waste of time to devote so much time to the Internet on-campus when surfing online takes up the most of my time at home, too.
This is probably because school is just... blah, and procrastination is too much fun to resist.

Shoe fetish

I'm obsessed with shoes.
It's true that I don't own a whole closetful of shoes, but that's only because I get more picky with what I buy and wear as I get older. Being the judgmental bitch that I am, I admit to judge a person based on first appearance. And out of that first impression, I look at the person's shoes before I scrutinize their other clothing/accessory choices. Price and brand don't necessarily guarantee good taste; I value good taste and a knack for knowing what goes/doesn't go with what.

Back in Seattle I had 30+ pairs at one point, and then I downsized considerably (because it was getting hard to decide on which pair to wear on a daily basis...). But that was mainly because online shopping made shopping for shoes that much easier -- and cheaper.

But somehow, now that I'm back in Thailand, I buy less and less pairs with each passing year. It's not for the lack of availability or access to shoes in here, hell there's probably way more variety of affordable goodies in Thailand than in anywhere else. But then, I went to Platinum Plaza yesterday, and all the shoes there (sandals, clogs, flats, pumps, wedge-heels, slippers) were just... blah. They were cheap alright, but they looked cheap, too. They were definitely the kind that people in the know can take one look at and say, oh you got them at mbk/platinum right? Nothing wrong with that, but being stupidly vain, I'd rather get complimented on how good my stuff looked rather than how cheap they were.

Right now I have less than 10 pairs in here, and around 5-6 pairs of shoes tucked away safely in my apartment in Taiwan.

But now these -- these are definitely the kind I'd wear even though I'd never be able to afford some of them. But hey, a girl can dream right? And ain't nothing wrong with just lookin'.

(image from Jimmy Choo)
"Simi" - Crepe de Chine pumps, Jimmy Choo. Heel height: 75 mm/3"
<-- oh gawd this is so gorgeous it kind of makes the fact that it costs £287.50 (after discount!) irrelevant... no not really, but still...

(image from Dr. Martens)
Sexy, sexy Doc Martens 1460 8 Eye Boot. Love the color, the smooth leather, and the durable sole. Functional and cute.

(image from grace gift)
Black leather booties I found from Grace Gift, an online shoe shop based in Taiwan. Heel height: 6 cm/a bit less than 2" I might get this pair when I go back to TW in December, it's only NT1480 (roughly $45), and it looks totally cute. Booties make your legs look slimmer and longer cuz they make your ankles look skinny :)

Now that I've ranted and drooled over the shoes that I want, I'm going to be helpful and point out the kind of shoes that one should not wear...

(image from nordstrom.com)

<-- from past personal horrifying experiences, one should never wear gladiator-style sandals if there are any slight imperfections to ones legs. Doesn't matter if your legs are too skinny or too muscular or lacking muscle-tone, gladiator sandals will emphasize all imperfections and make legs stubby and lumpy-looking, and that in turn, makes you frumpy. Not good if you ask me.

(image from nordstrom.com)

<-- Flats always look nice and comfy, don't they? Avoid at all cost the ultra flat flats like the pair above. Arch, toe, sole and ankle support are nonexistent, and these will probably hurt your feet more than stilettoes if you try to walk around in them. Always wear a little heel, 1-2 inches would be ideal if you have to walk around a lot in them, plus, heels will force you to arch your back straight, cuz slouching doesn't just look bad, it's bad for your posture too.

<-- I don't know if anyone's told you this before, but Crocs are just the ugliest things ever. It doesn't even matter how good they might feel on your feet, it's how they make everyone else feels about you when you're wearing them. Yup, you look totally ridiculous, that's what. Besides, you can get a really good imitation pair from Chatuchak or MBK for less than 200 baht (that's roughly $6 under the current exchange rate). Then these fur-lined Crocs come along, and they are just so much worse because they're so pointless. Aren't your toes still going to be freezing themselves off when you're treading through slush on your winter morning? Why would anyone choose to wear these is totally beyond me. (Don't come running and swinging your clubs at me, I apologize for offending anyone in advance :p)

Sometimes, you need to appreciate the spoilers.

I'm half way through my copy of Twilight, book 1 of Stephenie Meyer's popular Twilight Saga. It's a great book, really. Just as I was making up my mind to buy the other 3 books in the series, I made the mistake of reading some people's reviews on the final installment (titled Breaking Dawn) -- the reviews were far from positive.
--warning: spoilers ahead--

It's not that people didn't like Breaking Dawn or the conclusion Ms Meyer has drawn up for her fans, it's just that most readers seemed to have a problem with the not-so-subtle message she was trying to send.
The moral of the vampire-human-werewolf love triangle is supposed to be sacrifice and selflessness. But the main character, Bella Swan, is possibly the most immature, self-centered heroine ever created. It feels like Ms Meyer has forgotten to give Bella any personality at all because she was kept so busy describing over and over again the beauty of Edward, the vampire. As a result, Bella is so unimpressionable both in her own eyes and in the eyes of the readers, and defines herself based on cooler "others" -- namely, Edward and Jacob the werewolf, both of whom are willing to sacrifice their lives for her. Even though I'm not even done with book 1, I already have an idea of the kind of happy ending Ms Meyer has in store for everyone, and I have issues with it. Despite my interest in the love triangle which the story centers itself on, I'm totally giving up on Twilight Saga and on Stephenie Meyer's works because I wholeheartedly disagree with her message.
I like happy endings, and I like Enchanted and Cinderella, they were cheesy but cute. But based on the dissatisfied readers' complaints about Twilight Saga, Ms Meyer seems to want her young (mainly female) teenage fans to think that an eighteen year old child-woman does not need to be independent, nor does she need education. She just needs to marry a man--preferably a rich, immortal man who can in turn make her immortal and shower her with material goods--have his baby, and live happily ever after. Who cares if she can't support herself, heavily relies on others, and does not develop as a person throughout the entire time? Who cares if her boyfriend suddenly leaves her? she can just go ahead and find another man to cling onto. And what if her boyfriend decides to come back and she's torn in between the two men, both of whom profess their eternal, undying love for her?
She can just marry one of them (the richer one), and then make a deal to let the other one go for her child (which she has with the one she marries) instead!
That's just wrong on so many levels, not to mention disgustingly morbid. Imagine going after the daughter of the woman you love but can't have!
In the end, Bella gets everything without even trying, and she does not make a single sacrifice. She becomes a vampire, gains immortality, gets the beautiful and faithful Edward, begs for sex, and becomes pregnant with his baby -- and Meyer claimed that this is the story she wanted to write all along. I can't even begin to tell you what a letdown it was. But trust me, it's so disappointing that I'm bothering to type all this crap up right now at almost 3 in the morning even though I'm having difficulty thinking coherently or even keeping my eyes from closing involuntarily.
You can't even use the excuse of "Why not? It's fictional/fantasy!" for the wrongness of the ending because it's illogical, incoherent, and most importantly, where's the moral? Fantasies are supposed to center around a main ethical argument or a moral so readers young and old can enjoy the stories and learn something in the process. Ms Meyer's fanbase is primarily made up of impressionable teenage girls, they've followed Stephenie Meyer faithfully from Twilight to New Moon, Eclipse to finally, Breaking Dawn, and I'm highly doubtful that this is the kind of ending anyone has anticipated for. On top of that, I really don't think that the glorious "marry young, marry rich, forget about schooling", "baby-having-baby," and "turn to the daughter if you can't have the mother" notions are such great message to be sending out to anyone at all, let along her fans.

I disapprove (not that it means much) and urge anyone who's bothering to read this post to NOT read Twilight Saga and read something more worthwhile instead (even Harry Potter had more depth and Harry experienced very significant personal growth than Bella, who most readers claim to have remained flat, one-dimensional throughout), or if you're already reading it, finish the book you've got and just... stop. I'll still finish my copy of book 1 so it won't be a total waste of my 365baht, but tomorrow I'll go to Kino and find something else to read.

Meh.

Talkin' to myself and feelin' old
Sometimes I'd like to quit
Nothing ever seems to fit
Hangin' around
Nothing to do but frown
Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down.
-- Rainy Days and Mondays, The Carpenters

It's a Monday and I'm cramping badly and there's this presentation I must do this afternoon... sigh. Oh well, at leat try to enjoy your Monday with a healthy dose of hot chocolate and Valium and pray that it'd be Tuesday soon. Oh wait, but I hate Tuesdays, too. Le sigh.

In the meantime, enjoy the sight of this magnificent GINORMOUS rabbit:

(I should stop overfeeding my wabbit before he becomes scarily huge.)

夏目友人帳 Natsume Yūjin-Chō

夏目友人帳 is a Japanese anime I watched recently. Like most of the Japanese anime, this was made from 緑川ゆき's (Midorikawa Yuki) manga of the same name. The main character, 夏目貴志 (Takashi Natsume, referred to as Natsume throughout) has had this strange ability of seeing "Ayakashi mono" -- ghosts and spirits, since he was really young.
After moving to this town to live with some distant relatives who adopted him, Natsume is troubled by all the Ayakashi who seem to want something in his possession. The thing in question is a "Book of Friends" (友人帳) that he has inherited from his grandmother れいこ (Reiko), who passed away (altough how or why she died was never mentioned in the story).
Reiko also possessed the ability to see ghosts and spirits, and instead of befriending them, a young and lonely Reiko fought them and beat them in combat, then forced them to sign their names in the Book of Friends, thus binding them and making them her servants.
Some of the spirits loved her, some hated her, but all were pretty upset that she never called on them or visited them after beating them that one time.
Now, upon meeting Reiko's grandson, all the Ayakashi-mono are stunned at how the two human beings bore a distinct resemblance to each other, and most of them mistake Natsume for his grandma (apparently none of the spirits know about her death).
The main storyline is that Natsume feels sorry for all the Ayakashi that his grandmother has carelessly bound and trapped to the Book of Friends, and proceeds to release them.
The cutest part of this anime has got to be Nyaanko-sensei, this cat-formed higher-being who also lusts after the Book of Friends, but grows to be fond of Natsume and acts as his bodyguard against evil spirits who're after him.

As most of you probably know, I'm deathly afraid of horror movies and ghosts of any kind cuz I'm super sensitive like that, and I react negatively to scary things. This is probably the first anime/manga/movie/anything at all, in which monsters and ghosts play predominant roles in the plotline that I'm not scared of. In fact, I think it's the sweetest thing ever. It's honestly not meant to be scary or spooky, and a lot of the scenes made me want to go "awwa" because they were so cute. Specially the adorably fat Nyaanko. Plus, he's SUPER cute when he reveals himself in his true form, Madara. Overall, this is an anime I highly recommend to anyone who loves anime/cute things/a good story.

This is what you get when you get on the wrong side of PETA.

My trollsen twins:

It's a bit early for Halloween but awwa aren't they gorgeous? :D

Go ahead and get your ass to http://www.peta2.com/trollsens/index.asp and dress up your own Trollsen twin.

BluebloodTV presents: 第一次親密接觸趴吐 First Intimate Contact Part II

Ta da~~ the much anticipated sequel to the original "First Intimate Contact" is here. The sequel is longer and arguably better-executed to show our appreciation to the support we've received.

But first of all, let's recap...

Space Rabbit suddenly appears in front of Earth Rabbit, who is shocked and scared of the strange presence in front of him. They have the most unusual "first contact" and the story ends with Earth Rabbit running away from the alien and hiding in his house...





Two days later, Earth Rabbit receives another shock when the mysterious Space Rabbit appears again, demanding for food. Earth Rabbit tries to fight off the unwanted company, but can he succeed? What does Space Rabbit want from him anyway? Watch to find out...



The story:

Stay tuned on BluebloodTV for more exciting episodes of 第一次親密接觸 First Intimate Contact.

Note: No rabbits were harmed during the making of this movie. Both actors have been immensely loved and cared for.

BluebloodTV presents: 第一次親密接觸 First Intimate Contact

Synopsis: The well-loved furry slacker Earth Rabbit (NO小) loves to chill and lives in his very own worry-free bubble. But little does he know that the world as he knows it will soon end following a space invasion and a strange creature that calls itself Space Rabbit (Smorkin' Labbit) descends upon him... What will Earth Rabbit do to defend his turf? Will the unlikely pair ever become friends?

Characters:
Earth Rabbit........... NO小
Space rabbit..................Smorkin' Labbit

Produced and shot by Lisa Hsiang

Leading actors:

NO小 (pronounced N0-Shiao) age: 2 nationality: Thai-Taiwanese

Smorkin' Labbit age: ??? nationality: Korzikian

The story... *drum roll*

What will happen next? Be sure to stay tuned on BluebloodTV...

色老頭與小妖精 A Modern Fairytale Part III

Okay, I know whoever was interested in this story had already read it elsewhere (cuz I forced them to), but I feel bad about leaving it hanging unfinished in here. So I'm going to go ahead and post the last bit - and I just want to say thank you to all of you who have supported (or at least tried to support) my fairly unsuccessful writing career throughout. I know I can't write, whether in English or in Chinese (and suck at both), but thank you for bearing with me. Twenty years from now I'll probably look back and laugh at my complete inability to come up with coherent plots, but till then, I'll hold these lame unfinished (and probably will never be) stories dear to my heart. They're like my babies.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
隔天﹐她帶他去了教堂作禮拜。
早上9點17分﹐在她虔誠的唱著詩歌時﹐他看到了她眼角的淚。晶瑩的像水晶項鏈般﹐一串串的滑落她光潔的臉龐。她緊抓著他的手﹐嗚咽著訴說著兩天前她的愛犬是如何的早夭。
『…她…她是在我懷裡斷氣的…我﹑我還是不敢相信這是真的…她的毛還是那麼白﹐眼睛卻緊閉著不肯看我…我怎麼叫她﹐她都不會回應了…』
他震撼的不能自己。原來那些傳謠都是假的--她不是過於物欲﹑嗜錢如命的小妖精﹐她是上帝派下凡的小天使。
『芙…』他被撼動了。為什麼上天要對他這般不公平﹐在他流浪情海那麼多年﹐屆臨中年時方纔給他這份遲來的真愛﹖

中午12點29分﹐她不像女朋友那樣堅持吃米其林等級的餐廳﹐卻很高興的偎著他吃路邊沒有冷氣小吃店的白切透抽和蒜泥白肉﹐接吻時嗆得他喘不過氣。
『羅傑﹐你嘴邊沾到醬了啦~』她取笑他﹐一邊隔著衣服撫摸他日見圓潤的肚皮。
『妳…妳不介意﹖』他試探的問。
『介意什麼﹖』她眨著娃娃大眼﹐一派自然。
他摟緊了她﹐單手把玩著她的雙手。她的指甲纖長﹐塗成自然派的嬌嫩淺粉紅。『我大了妳這麼多歲﹐又胖又禿頭…』
『什麼嘛﹐難道你之前的女朋友都那樣說你﹖』她驚訝得睜大了眼﹐鄙夷的癟嘴。『太過份了﹗你根本就不胖﹗而且﹐十四歲又不算差很多…更何況﹐我在乎的是內涵﹐外表年紀什麼的不都是假象嗎﹖』
她曖昧的貼近他。『有人說﹐禿頭的男人﹐能力越是好…』
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
傍晚6點09分﹐他送了她一支粉紅色鑲鑽的IWC﹐要她做他一個人的小妖精。她感動的哭了。當晚﹐她抱得他好緊…

卻在收了錶的隔天﹐


她消聲匿跡。




那時﹐時鐘剛好敲響了午夜12點。

他回家﹐賴在八十歲老母的懷裡哭。向來是他讓女人哭的﹐這個女人怎會有能耐讓他…

她是個小妖精。




你有興趣陪她玩嗎﹖

--THE END--

如果痘痘長在...

额头 - 代表心火旺、血液循环有问题，可能是过于劳心伤神。这类的人脾气较不好，应养成早睡早起的习惯，睡眠充足，并多喝水。可以服用“导赤散”以泻心火。
鼻子 - 如果长在鼻梁，代表脊椎骨可能出现问题；如果是长在鼻头处，可能是胃火大、消化系统异常；若在鼻头两侧，就可能跟卵巢机能或生殖系统有关。可以服用“枇杷清肺饮”合“黄连解毒汤”以清热燥湿润肺。
下巴 - 表示肾功能受损或内分泌系统失调。女生容易在下巴周围长痘痘的可能是月事不顺所引起的。可以服用“知柏地黄丸”以滋肾阴清虚热。
左边脸颊 可能是肝功能不顺畅，如肝脏的分泌、解毒或造血等功能出了状况。可以适当地服用“龙胆泻肝丸”以泻肝火
右边脸颊 可能是肺部功能失常。可以服用“枇杷清肺饮”以泻肺热。

This is what I found on Google when searching for the causes for the zits on my chin area. It's written in a Chinese discussion board. It basically says that zits and pimples on the chin area are most likely due to kidney problems and digestive problems. If you're a girl it might also mean a funky menstrual cycle (lol, that's me). Check out the really cool names of the medicine they suggest that you take (are they prescriptive?) -- 龍膽﹖導赤﹖好像武俠小說喔... XD 不過龍膽不會是蛇﹑蛇﹑蛇膽吧 *驚驚*
不過話說回來﹐難怪我下巴的小痘痘一直都沒有好(整個消化很差而且經期超不順) -__-"

"Be vewwy vewwy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits." -Elmer Fudd

According to wiki, as well as dictionary.com

wabbit actually refer to a self-replicating program that is not a virus nor an worm. All it does is make replicas of itself on the computer. But, not doing anything else doesn't mean they are safe. By replicating rapidly on the computer, they can hog up the system memory and result in system failure. 

Well, i guess for most of us, wabbit is known as Elmer Fudd's way of pronoucing rabbits. Hopefully this is the "wabbit" that you get to encounter, and not the wabbit programs :)

In which we chilled by the pool...

I took NO小 to our apartment's little poolside garden on Saturday, and we had fun chillin' and hanging out by the pool. Check out the adorableness that is NO小 the wabbit...

Like what a friend commented upon seeing this picture, NO小 actually looks like a proper rabbit amidst all this green and blue instead of a giant monster (which he normally looks like) when he's lying around in my bathroom.

After much running around and digging holes, we were exhausted and retired to a nearby tree for shade...

We found a pretty white flower on the ground and NO小 told me that he really really wanted to wear it (hey, who said boys can't be pretty?)

And then it was still much too hot for our liking, so we hid ourselves underneath a patch of tall Bird of Paradise flowers.


Comfyness. We like flowers.

At this point, clouds began to gather and the winds were blowing and we were afraid that it was going to rain. So we ran and ran and ran, and finally made it back home. (Actually, NO小 was exaggerating - we took the elevator, and it took us less than 2 minutes to get back home... But maybe rabbits have a different sense of time?)

Wanlong

It would make me so happy if I could either be here...

or here...

... instead of where i currently am.

Just looking at this picture and thinking about this place makes me feel sick.

I'd give anything to be here instead:

The danger that is Maybelline Japan

This isn't a discussion about cosmetics. This is a post about marketing.

I'm kind of a brand whore when it comes to cosmetics. Except for Japanese brands (which produces drugstore/budget brands under giant cosmetics companies like Kose, Albion, or Shiseido), I never use drugstore brands. Not trying to be a total snob, but drugstore brands just don't do anything for me (especially brands like Maybelline or Sally Hensen, which have bad, cheap-looking packaging, and almost non-existing quality, but well, I guess you get what you pay for).

So it was totally surprising when I saw this really cute loose powder from Maybelline Japan. It's currently a limited edition product in Taiwan, and available only through Watson's from mid Aug-mid September.


It's metallic-pink and shaped like a giant pacifier. I know -- it doesn't feel like Lisa at all. But it's cute, and I figured if I end up not liking it, I could always find someone more appreciative to give it to. The price seemed reasonable at NT425, too (that's roughly a bit over USD$12). Not to mention it was supposedly a Japan-exclusive item. So, a good deal right? I asked Jack to purchase it for me because it's available for such a short period of time, and he agreed.

Meh.

Good thing I wasn't so dazed by its pinkness that I forgot to read it up on an online discussion board about makeup and skincare (it's in traditional Chinese, but here it is anyway: http://www.urcosme.com/index.htm). Turns out there's only 4.3g of product in the tiny loose powder case. That's 125NT for ONE GRAM, making this Maybelline product more costly than Chanel or Dior. (My Anna Sui loose powder is around 1400nt for 25 grams, that's around 65 nt/gram.)

Just looking at the display picture, you'd never know right? It looks so typical Maybelline - messy, a whole lot of loose powder cases crammed in this tiny allotted space - it looks so cheap.

I personally think it's their intended goal -- cute packaging, seemingly reasonable price, limited availability -- to suck you in and you end up paying more for this drugstore brand item than for products from premium brands.

From my limited understanding of how this works, probably 3/4 of the price you pay for goes toward funding the company's advertisements, rents, and other expenses. Customers end up paying premium for something they figured was cheap and a "fashion item" instead of a "luxury item."

This is rather impressive coming from a brand known for its affordability and availability in the US and pretty much around the globe. So far I don't see this happening in the US drugstore makeup brands business yet, but only exclusive in Japan. Guess this proves the already-undisputable fact that the Japanese are just that much better at conducting business than the rest of us.

I told Jack that he didn't have to buy it for me anymore. It's so not worth it.

p.s. Although it's supposedly a Japan-exclusive, it's made in China. I'll have to admit that 90% of the reason why I gave up on wanting this product is because of that. Toxic powdered milk, toxic food, clothes, mattresses... etc. Toxic loose powder will look so good on this list.

"This is a work of art, not a toy."

Look it's my very own Smorkin' Labbit!

I first saw Smorkin' Labbits when I was hanging out with BS at Siam Paragon. They were part of an exhibition for a Japanese anime fest or something. And it was love at first sight I swear. The Labbits were just too cute -- but the price was staggering so we thought, oh well, maybe it isn't meant to be.

But then, BS took the trouble to get me one and mailed it over from the States!

SUCH a good friend.

姊姊﹐謝謝~~~~~~ 你竟然會記得Labbit的事﹐超超超超級感動的*跪拜* 最近一直都在很衰覺得倒霉爆了﹐然後Labbit就出現了說~~~讓我不禁覺得活著果然還是有好事的咩(哇哈哈有沒有這麼誇張啊)

The Labbit is just so damn cute NO小 is jealous :)

photofunia -- it's super fun

<-- see, it's NO小!

cute right? :) i'm sick today with a killer sore throat, but i spent hours playing with this -__-"

go ahead and make your own at http://www.photofunia.com/ :)

--------------------edit:

more pics:

<-- this is my brother, jimmy (who really does look like a villain)

now,

are you ready for the last one? it's a bit disturbing...

tada! it's (almost)ex-PM samak XD

cheers,