Monthly Archive
Browsing entries posted on July 2007
Singapore Shopping Meta-Blog
*Paid Post*
Blogs that function as online storefronts for retailers are nothing new in Singapore. In fact the online shopping community is pretty large, with a huge variety of items being offered. However, keeping track of so many blogs can be daunting. This is where BlogShopr comes in.
BlogShopr is a meta-blog that collates posts from its member blogs, which are blogs selling apparel, accessories, jewelry and cosmetics, among others. Each time a new item is posted, it will appear on BlogShopr. How, then, is it any different from using RSS feeds to track the shopping blogs?
Well, for starters, BlogShopr has a staggering number of shops. Just scrolling down the list will take you some time. The reason for this huge membership is that the items for sale aren’t limited to just women’s clothing, although they form a majority of the blogs. Accessories such as bags and shoes, men’s clothing, children’s clothing and even pet accessories are on offer. Some blogs also have sprees, where buyers pool their orders from overseas so as to save on shipping costs.
The main advantage of BlogShopr is its bandwidth-friendly collapsed posts system. Each post from a retailer contains a description of the item, with pictures hidden after the jump, so the main page won’t take forever to load. If a description interests you, you just expand the post to see the pictures, and a direct link takes you to the seller’s blog.
Since BlogShopr collects shopping blogs in one place, comparison shopping becomes easier. Most of the blogs selling women’s apparel, for instance, will be stocking the latest trends, and it’s possible to find identical pieces being sold by different shops, so the buyer has more choice.
On the other hand, BlogShopr could still improve on several aspects. Since shopowners can tag their posts as belonging to several categories, it would be good if I could sort blogposts by these categories. For example, if I only felt like looking for children’s clothing, a ’sort’ feature could save me time and effort by eliminating unrelated posts. If such a feature is already in place, it needs to be made more prominent because I couldn’t find it.
Also, the ability to do comparison shopping is rather limited - readers will have to compare manually, since this isn’t a full-fledged shopping site like Amazon.com and a true cross-comparison feature is lacking. However, the primary function of BlogShopr is to aggregate shopping blogs, and in that it serves its purpose well.
As part of its promotional efforts, BlogShopr is offering a $30 voucher from http://cheap-treats.blogspot.com to be won in a lucky draw, which will be held in August. To enter the lucky draw, all you have to do is blog about why you would like the prize, include a link and leave a comment on the lucky draw post. More details will be available come August!
Would you like chips with that Order?
Warning: Spoilers ahead for “Harry Potter and the Order of the
Plot hole:
Why does the Ministry of Magic make its denizens move through the potentially hazardous (to wizarding folk) Muggle world in order to get to their headquarters in
Style:
Quick comments on the Dementor attack: Where are the Dementors’ hoods? And the Dursleys don’t seem angry enough, or maybe that’s because having read the books, I know how much longer the actual scene drags on. Bonus points if you noticed the stark difference between the playground field, and the lawns of
A little stylistic thing I noticed: The propensity to wield wands as though they were weapons of a more Muggle nature. Bellatrix holds hers like a knife, poking the point into her hostage’s neck and then holding it across his throat, which is something you do with a knife. This rankles me a bit, simply because of the non-magical provenance of the gestures. I also thought Bellatrix was a little too nutso, but 14 years or so in the presence of our dear joy-sucking Dementors will do that to you. She’s so totally my inspiration for this upcoming part I have in the hall orientation programme.
I loved the revamp in the Death Eater costumes - now instead of looking like Klan members who dyed their robes black, they resemble the Immortals from “300″ with their metallic face masks. Jason Isaacs is delicious in his limited role as main minion of the Dark Lord, and the style with which he removes his mask should illustrate why I refer to him as “Pimp Daddy Malfoy”.
In previous films, I’ve noticed that Snape has an almost balletic way of moving, and in what little we see of him, he shows off more snazzy moves. He doesn’t just turn around, he pivots like a dancer. He doesn’t rummage, his hands seem to glide along the surface with controlled, spare movements. And although I was roundly derided for saying this, I shall reiterate my point: Young Severus is rather a yummy morsel. It’s probably the hair working its effect on me again. That, and I tend to find young Slytherins disturbingly attractive. Teenage Tom Riddle in “Chamber of Secrets” was quite hot, really. Hey, it’s no secret that I own a Slytherin t-shirt, so I might as well declare my allegiances loud and clear.
The Devil is in the details.
A lot of content has been cut from the books, but some has been added in as well. The part I missed the most was from the chapter “Christmas on the Closed Ward”, which has one of the most touching family scenes ever, involving Neville and his parents. It was an important point in the development of the Neville character, and while it’s addressed later in a modified setting, the drama just isn’t the same.
Those who have read their way through the 768-page book (the longest in the series) and have committed details to memory will feel the lack of detail, but non-fans won’t notice anything missing and may even wonder why we’re making such a fuss. It’s a huge challenge to reduce a door-stopper of a book to a 138-minute film, and sacrifices have to be made - no Quidditch, for starters, although if you pay attention, you can see that Harry’s Seeker skills come in useful in a pivotal action scene.
The character viewers will love to hate comes not in the form of Draco Malfoy and his two bodyguards - they’re denied a proper amount of screen time, and Draco gets just the one line - but in the odious Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary of… whatever, just another power-obsessed Ministry official. Her first shady doing smells slightly of Dark magic, but when she threatens a student with one of the Unforgivables, you know power has gone right to her pink-hatted head.
It’s a real pity about the members of the Order getting short shrift, and what’s with Kingsley? I always thought he was the strong, silent type. Tonks is restricted to mild, almost childish comic relief. Lupin appears out of nowhere to restrain Harry towards the end, and it was the first good look I’d had at his face in the whole film. Not a lot of Kreacher either - he’s too hateful and costs too much to produce, being 100% CGI and all. No problem there, though - we don’t have time for Hermione’s preachings on house-elf liberation.
Words to live by:
The black smoke trails that the Death Eaters left behind them as they fought the members of the Order in the Department of Mysteries were quite pretty, but it played into the ol’ visual shorthand of “dark, evil side” vs “white side of light and truth”. Redemption from preachiness is to be found in Sirius’ encouragement to Harry: “… the world isn’t split into good people and death eaters. We have all got both light and dark inside us.” Well said, my man! Let’s all recognise the greyness that is life, and not restrict ourselves to just white or black.
Grow up please.
Now on to the lovey-dovey bits. There were comments from my friends that Harry was too sure of himself for a first kiss, which is true. You can’t aim very well when it’s your first time, and your eyes are closed, and you certainly don’t go in for open-mouthed kissing immediately… but that’s just me. For all I know, our boy Harry’s been getting in extensive practice on his pillow. It was strangely pleasing to see that the kiss got more than a cursory coverage - Harry’s growing up, and if you don’t want to live with the realities of a teenage boy’s discovery of the joys of puberty, don’t watch a show about said boy. I can live with seeing the protagonist have a snog.
As romantic as first kisses are, they don’t guarantee longevity for a relationship, and in the film they barely had one anyway. If you’ve read the books, you’d notice that they’re setting up the scene for the next movie, where Harry moves on to another girl. Hem hem *Umbridge giggle*. Little glances and hand-holding, very very obvious! Although certainly not as obvious as that couple making out in the corridor. That’s really way too much, even with raging hormones taken into account. You don’t so much as hold hands in school, much less make out. In broad daylight. In a crowded corridor. Brazen!
A lot has been stylized in the movie, again in the interests of time, I suppose. The intricacies of performing magic are given less emphasis, except when they’re part of the plot as in the training sessions for the DA. Notice that Bellatrix crawls into a fireplace and disappears in green flames - a trademark of the Floo network - and yet she is not seen to use any Floo powder. I suppose, this being the 5th movie, we’re all past our fascination with wizarding gadgets and magical implements, and just want them to be getting on with the story.
Apparently this is the shortest Potter movie yet, and you can feel it in the rushed-ness of the movie. It’s not a bad movie, it has its merits, and faithfulness to the source should be thoughtfully defenestrated when occasion calls for it. Still, a little explanation might have sweetened the experience for non-readers, although certainly not to the point of Umbridge’s 3 spoons of funny-looking sugar. It was sweet to be reminded of how chubby-cheeked and tiny the 3 main actors used to be, in the form of Harry’s memories being forced out of him by Professor Snape, the accomplished Legilimens. The characters are growing up, their actors are growing up, and the movies will follow the book series in taking a darker and more adult turn. “Order” was rated a PG-13 for frightening scenes, and I remember that “Chamber” was rated PG for frightening scenes involving the Whomping Willow. It can’t get any more violent, since children watch this stuff, but I expect to jump in fright a few more times, gasp in horror at the evil done in this world, and shed a few more tears before this franchise reaches its end.
Your Goose Is Cooked!
*Paid Post*
About 12 years ago, Kenny Rogers’ Roast Chicken, the chain outlet, came to Malaysia. The most arresting thing about the restaurants was the huge wood oven they used to roast the chickens in. Arranged neatly in rows, the birds went round and round on a giant rotisserie, releasing a delectable smell.
The roasting method of cooking meat is healthy because the animal fat liquefies and drips out, while some complex chemical reaction results in that mouthwatering smell. Unfortunately, it was difficult to replicate roast foods at home, even with an oven. I should know, I’ve tried. The main obstacle is probably the fact that the food isn’t rotating, thus ensuring even heating. After all, that’s how they roasted meat in the medieval ages, on a spit over an open fire, right?
To meet the needs of households and commercial enterprises, RotisolUSA.com manufactures electric and gas rotisseries. Their equipment is engineered to have an optimum rotation speed so that the juices of the meat are sealed in, while fat drips off. Adjustable spits allow users to roast various kinds of meat, fish included. And for those who, like me, love to sit and watch the flame slowly cook their food, their residential model has a visible cooking flame. You won’t have to wait too long for food to cook, either. According to their website, a 1kg chicken should take about an hour. Pop in the chicken, turn on the rotisserie, and come back in 60 minutes to a delicious roast a la Kenny Rogers!
A forest of electronics
I think I can safely assume that none of my readers need to be told what or where Sim Lim Square is. “Sim Lim”, according to the Chinese characters on the sign, means “forest”. That’s a pretty appropriate name for this place that overwhelms the uninitiated with the sheer number of shops and variety of electronic goods available.
I was there to buy an external hard disk, my D: partition having surrendered to my ravenous appetite for movies and TV sitcoms. An online comparison with Low Yat Plaza in KL indicated that the item I wanted would actually be cheaper back home, but unfortunately I had just left home. Yeah, really good planning on my part. Nevertheless, I decided to use the KL price as a benchmark for my budget.
A quick check showed that I’d either have to bargain the price waaaaay down, adjust my budget or buy something cheaper, as none of the shops could meet my price. I know the situation for the SLS tenants - their rental is pretty high, for a place that would be seedy if it wasn’t also the mecca for gadget geeks - and they operate on a very slim profit margin, so I knew there was no point bargaining. Plan B was to increase my budget, but I was reluctant to do that, knowing I would always have paid a significant amount less back home. Plan C it was then. I abandoned the idea of getting a Western Digital Passport, which was what I was originally after, and thought about getting a Samsung that sat very comfortably within budget with room to spare.
In the end, I went the DIY route and bought my hard disk and casing separately. I came in just under budget, with a pretty case (as opposed to the rather bland ones I was offered as a bundle) that was a bit larger than I wanted, but that’s because I got a 160GB HDD and the slim ones couldn’t handle that capacity. I got them from Bell Systems on the 5th floor. The sales staff were very friendly, they didn’t try to play this little girl for a fool, the way some shop at Lucky Plaza did. They answered my silly questions on casings and why some weren’t compatible with certain HDDs. I suppose I came off looking fine, because there was a kid in the shop with her dad, and she was loud and childishly obnoxious. I got the impression she was the one doing all the loud bargaining, I couldn’t hear her dad at all. Not that I was very the expert either - I didn’t realise the HDD had to be formatted, but that’s why the service was very good. The staff knew what had to be done, even if I didn’t. Better than me having to do it on my own, and I got to see Vista in action as well.
On my walk back to Little India MRT station, I went past a group of Indian workers having dinner while seated in a circle on the cement floor outside their shop. I wonder if their dinner was prepared communally, rather than being a packed meal from somewhere. One thing about the roads in Little India - I noticed a Kerbau Road and a Buffalo Road. In Malay, “kerbau” means “buffalo” anyway. And on the walkway along the road, an elderly man on a blue bike called out “kring kring kring” and punctuated this with a honk of his horn as he rode past. He turned to have a look at me, probably to settle whether I was a boy or a girl. Under normal circumstances I’d have labeled him a dirty old man, but he seemed harmless enough and I was in a good mood, so I just figured he was confused by my appearance. Happens often enough nowadays.
The last time I went to Sim Lim Square was maybe 5 years ago… I remember buying my Diablo Battle Chest there. It hasn’t changed at all, except maybe for toilet renovations or something like that. Low Yat Plaza should take a lesson from SLS - Low Yat’s toilets are horrible, even by Malaysian standards. And they have the cheek to charge for entry! I had dinner at the food court, which had the usual variety and wasn’t crowded at all even though it was peak hour - 7pm. The seafood porridge I had from the Hor Fun stall wasn’t bad, even if I thought it might have been a wee bit overpriced. To justify that, though, the cuttlefish was good, and the prawn was large and fresh - it’s very sad to have only one prawn and to have it be a mushy, frozen-too-long specimen. All in all, a very pleasing day spent in the labyrinth of SLS.
Dating On The Goth Scene
*Paid Post*
Online dating has ballooned into a large and profitable business venture on the Internet. It started out with generic sites, and now the niche markets are being catered to. One such provider of alternative dating networks is GothScene.com. They’re in the arena of gothic dating and they proudly proclaim their status as the “#1 Alternative Dating Community on the Net”.
The site doesn’t work much differently from other sites, except that its specialty is goth dating. There’s still a standard member’s profile page, featured random single, as well as the ability to view photos and “send a flirt”. Some text at the bottom of the page informs users that “many members love techno, punk rock and goth music”. The site claims to be a place for gothic members to meet other goths, but I don’t think they can impose any restrictions on this. Joining is free, so the community is quite large.
All in all, as a dating site it looks fine, although those singles seeking goths and not just people who love wearing black eyeliner may have to sift through the profiles to find someone that fits their requirements. As always, a dating community can only bring you in touch with people, but it can’t replace the human touch.
Almost extinct: Clean Dorm Rooms
The population of clean rooms in hall decreases throughout the academic year. Their population curve over time resembles a sawtooth wave, with a drastic spike in July, and a gradual fall until the next July.
Usually, parents and domestic helpers are responsible for the population boost every year, but this time around a new party entered the conservation arena. The Eusoff Flag team decided to offer room-cleaning services as a fundraiser, and the service was met with overwhelming demand to the point where there was a waiting list of rooms to be cleaned. I asked them to clean mine on Friday, after I’d had a look at my room and come back with blackened soles, and they cleaned it today - they were really busy.
They did a fantastic job too. I’d already wiped my shelves, because I’m slightly anal about all the neglected corners, and cleaned my blinds the best I could since they don’t do blinds - it’s too time-consuming. And I thought it was only fair that I have a go at cleaning my own room so that I know how clean it can get, rather than insisting they get everything sparkling clean to meet my crazy high standards. I can’t help my high standards. My grandmother was a housekeeper, so she had lofty standards, which she passed on to her daughters, one of whom is my mother. Mum, in turn, had daughters, hence prolonging the family proclivity to extreme cleanliness.
I even soaped down my closet and swept the top of the shelves, where no one ever bothers to clean. If cleanliness is next to godliness, I’m on my way to sainthood. Still can’t beat my mother, though, she is the Kami-sama Of Clean. Although I think the flag team might make good disciples for her.
They got my windows so clean, it’s like there’s nothing between me and the outside world! I don’t think they’ve ever been so clean since the day they were installed. The ceiling fan, bugbear of neat freaks everywhere for its tendency to collect dust bunnies, is now bunny-free. Everything is so clean my vacation room looks like a dump by comparison, and I have to wipe down my possessions so they won’t contaminate my pristine new room. Ahhh. Money well spent.
Top left: An expanse of empty desk, before the rot of papers and assignments sets in.
Top right: Fan, no longer shedding dust everywhere.
Bottom left: The view out my window, taken through the glass - that’s how clean it is.
Bottom right: The new addition to my wall, a replica of the famed Liverpool sign.
Board-dom
*Paid Post*
When people look at maximising storage space in a room, for instance the garage, they usually fail to look at the walls. Most times the walls are just considered as being there for the shelves to lean against. With narrow rooms, however, using the walls themselves as a surface to hang things may be a better idea.
One way to do this is with a metal pegboard. The Audioworks room in my hall uses something similar to organise wires and cables. Basically the pegboards are mounted onto the wall, and you insert hooks into the holes to hang things. This versatility means that you can use the pegboards elsewhere in the house, for example to hang crockery in the kitchen. I’m quite taken with the small white pegboards, they match the plain whiteness of my dorm room walls, but I’m not allowed to drill holes into the walls. If they had a custom colour option, I’d get one in light purple to match my room at home - my sister could use a place to hang her many pairs of earrings.
We are the prata hall!
Never underestimate the power of opening a business in the vicinity of student residences. After 3 years in Eusoff, I can tell you that when hall residents either praise or slag a shop, lemming-like behaviour will be observed. Of course, this isn’t to say that we brainlessly go where others have gone, but expect to see swarms of students at places that have had their praises sung.
One such place is Sheng Siong, beloved by undergrads for the cheap groceries, foreign beer, and significantly discounted liquor. The vodka isn’t as cheap as it is in duty-free (I would know, I just bought a 75cl bottle) but it’s still cheaper than buying retail. It’s very funny indeed that the same students who go hunting for cheap fruits and vegetables think nothing of dropping 60 dollars on a bottle of JD. That’s what I call odd priorities, and I’m not excusing myself either.
It’s dangerously addictive to wander the snackfood aisles upstairs, because Sheng Siong parallel-imports stuff you’d have difficulty finding elsewhere. Family-size Nestle Crunch bars - because I like Crunch and I want lots of it - has only ever been found here, in my entire uni career. I don’t know why other places stopped carrying it. TKN crispy seaweed is lots cheaper here than it is at Watsons’, because someone carries the Thai stock, ahem ahem. Candy Empire isn’t the only place that has the new-design Aussie Mars bars, Sheng Siong has them in 3 different sizes - mini, 50g and 60g.
Sometimes it’s not the imported stuff that makes me squeal with happiness. I am, after all, a typical Malaysian, with typically Malaysian tastes in munchies. So while I have dried figs and gummy candies in the basket, I also can’t resist jeruk (pickled fruit) and keropok. Despite knowing that I can’t finish a whole bag of keropok in one day, which means the opened packet will get lemau (un-crispy), I chucked it in. So imagine my pleasant surprise when I opened the keropok bag to realise that it had a resealable zipper. No more lemau-ness!
Places like Cheese Prata, Fong Seng and Sheng Siong are why the Freshman 15 is a joke in Eusoff. Try the Freshman 20, or 30, instead. I’d consider it getting off lightly if I graduated from uni having gained only 15 pounds. In between the McDonald’s, nasi lemak, keropok and Double Choco Hello Panda, washed down with copious amounts of booze and Milo peng, I’ve probably accumulated so much arterial plaque that the defrib machine isn’t just a manifestation of cover-our-asses paranoia.
And finally, just to explain the title: Although we are obviously the prata hall since we live nearest to Cheese Prata, the provenance of the phrase is more complicated and current. The stale “This is Sparta!” joke was reinterpreted to be “This is Prata!”, and because our new orientation banner has a decidedly Spartan-300 feel to it, “This is Eusoff” thus implies that Eusoff is the prata hall. Yes. Okay, so I don’t come up with good jokes, but I’m not headlining a comedy show, am I? Oh that reminds me - I should co-opt the Spartans’ whoop-whoop cheer for my orientation group. Can you tell that I’m so overtly heterosexual?
Oh yes, I do love my brawny men in skimpy leather armour. And I’m not ashamed to say it!
The Annual Sexyback Convention
I should make a tradition out of this. Every year, I should do something drastic to my appearance or my life, just to shake myself out of complacency and spice up my existence a bit. There hasn’t been anything to blog about because I’ve been doing nothing more than sitting at home, or in my room, whining about the weather and how it’s stifling me in more ways than one. So, in a fit of reactance, I decided to chop off my hair. Mostly because tying it up is a bother, especially in this hot weather, plus I like to mess with society’s perception of gender roles.
Do excuse the quality - cellphone camera. In this photo you can see why, way back in Form 1, a classmate described my nose as a “misshapen potato”. I love the way my bangs look, but they tickle me and the hairstyling product isn’t skin-friendly.
Oh yeah, new sunglasses. They’re almost a polar opposite with my other pair which are oval-ish and nearly an opaque brown-black. Indeed, I feel incredibly rock-star with them on.
Next, I’m considering purple hair. If I’m going down the emo-pop-punk route, complete with a generous helping of androgyny, I might as well go the whole hog and get my youthful indiscretions out of the way before I graduate from the period of extended adolescence known as college.
The only unfortunate thing about my gender-bending is that I look ridiculous in a dress or other overtly feminine clothing. No matter, I’m not trying to attract guys who like girly girls. In fact, I’d be somewhat pleased if I caused homoerotic feelings - in individuals of both sexes. Heehee. But maybe I am overestimating my ability to bring sexy back, yah?
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