Woohooo!

Despite the overall whiteness of the design, I am loving this new blogger! I can now add labels to all my previously label-less posts quickly and easily! Amazing what labels can do for you. It categorizes all your happy emo sad funny retarded angry posts efficiently and all you have to do it click on one label and you can see all the other posts with the same key words! \^O^/

I realize it is quite late in the day for me to finally come to grips with the labels, but better late than never right? =P.

Anyway, it's back to spring cleaning for me. How are your CNY preparations? Only a few more days away before we can all parade in our fancy new clothes and gather red packets like picking flowers in a meadow full of roses and honeysuckles ^w^.

Did I ever mention how I dislike CNY? It's the time of the year when my house suddenly transforms into some magical 24 hour restaurant and the whole world is suddenly on the brink of starvation and we're the only restaurant open O^O. 

There, I've said it. Be off with you now *bounds away*

So I Finally Completed Assassin's Creed II..

And Ezio's like, "Now what? =/"

I'll tell you now what. DOWNLOAD BROTHERHOOD!!! 8D 8D 8D 8D

Damn it, I knew I should've brought Terry back. Had I brought him along I wouldn't have to sit here and download shyt that might not even work when the download be complete. Stupid, stupid, fish.

The game was fun though! I realized I started playing it in the August of 2010...took me more than a year of inconsistent playing to finally realize it's full awesomeness. Go me! What I really liked was the super-detailed and realistic buildings and shtuff. It's these little things that really draw you into the game and build up the whole atmosphere. Very impressive world, the puzzles weren't all that easy to complete, and there was just so many things to do! I actually have not completed all the side quests and collections (but not that much either =P). Of course, the missions were very entertaining as well. I have never played the first game so I have nothing to compare it with, but I thoroughly enjoyed the game as its own. Am hoping that Brotherhood and later, Revelations, will not disappoint. 

I miss Prince of Persia all of a sudden. It's sad that I can't quite remember all of what happened in the games. I need to play them all over again. Not want, need. NEED. Bwahahaha 8D.

Yeah, I chose the close-to-Chinese-New-Year-end-of-sem-break to become industrious. Bow to me and my powerz, bwahaha.

Beautiful Strength

It is completed!

The lion is looking very very dandy indeed <3. Regretted inking in Stabilo, definitely. I shall bear in mind that unless I want to have completely melted linearts, I should avoid using Stabilos for inking in the future, no matter how captivating their colours may be. Guess I'll have to save up and get those coloured Zigs I saw in Art Friend next time I'm in the Gardens...

  I really liked how the colours turned out, though they are a bit messy here and there. Originally I intended to only have blue and purple and pink but after awhile I realized I definitely needed something to make the overall thing go pop, so I added a contrasting orange. What do you think?

I made the most amazing mistake, really. What with the longest semester break I'd have and I leave my markers behind, hence having to resort to watercolours. It's a nice change, though. Might as well sharpen my painting $k!lLz since I'm in no mood to practice my digital (didn't even bring my tablet back; Joanne you be awesome yes you be) and I've no markers to practice upon. Oh well.

First artwork of 2012 by the way! May the passion live on strong and beautiful =).

Daydream

Sometimes when the weather gets unbearably hot, I find myself imagining a fantasy world where I can lounge on cool patterned tiles and listen to the refreshing trickle of a fountain. I imagine a jug of cool rose drink with lemon slices and delicate glasses beside it, and maybe a bumpy glass bowl of jelly to go with it. There would be large, soft cushions and a colourful silk throw. The breeze would be cool and constant, playing with the glass windchimes that tinkle overhead somewhere. And scents: the breeze would bring in the delicious aroma of pandan leaves and rosewater with just a hint of lemon zest: the very embodiment of green and pink and sunshine dancing in the cool air.
A cool, quiet and serene retreat from the heat and troubles that weigh down upon me. Just one of the many world I like to lose myself in sometimes.

What kind of worlds reside in your mind?

New faces, old memories.

I clicked on Facebook's Timeline button today. Argh, I knew I shouldn't have; I should've known there wouldn't be a revert to old interface button XD. Owh well, nothing much I can do about that.

So since I'd gotten myself into the mood for clicking fancy new shiny buttons, I clicked on the new Blogger interface thingy, and here I am trying it out for the first time. It reminds me very much of Qumana and emails, and it is a tad too white for me. Any chance of customizing the dashboard I wonder? Gotta poke around after this.

I'm going up to KL for the weekend, and that is another funny thing to think about. Back when I was still in high school, a weekend trip to KL would be so much fun; I was actually excited to go up and go shopping and shyt. Now it's like, KL? Bleh. Owhkay.

Guess it's just one of those changes in life we all go through, eh?

I was reading my old journal yesterday night, and when I say old I mean like '07-'09...and oh my god. It's so amazing, just how much I've forgotten. I couldn't actually remember some things that happened. I haven't read my journal from '04 (OMG!), but I can tell it'd be just as astonishing =P. At some point I had to stop and ask myself 'wow, Joanne, I can't believe that was you'.

If I had the chance, back then, to glimpse at the person I am now, today, I think I'd ask myself, 'wow, Joanne, I can't believe THIS is you', lol. But, most of my life in recent years were not recorded down, and to be honest I've already forgotten most of the lesser happenings. It's sad, really, because I'd like to be able to read about happenings now 6 years in the future. But at this rate, I'd have precious little to look back at. And relying on my memory is, well, not one of the recommended methods.

If you have old journals or diaries, it'd be cool to take a look at them now just to see how far you've gone in life. I have 3 journals, the last one with the most amount of gaps, I am ashamed to say. But, well, there's this here blog, so if I'm going to make sure I have something to read when I'm older and grayer, I should wean away from the paper and pen and really get serious into the whole blogging thing. Things would probably get awfully personal, though. Lol. But, yeah. Blog now for the future! =D

That last sentence reminds me of a poster I was planning on doing for myself. Kind of a motivational poster for when I'm not in the best of moods. Let's see if there will be progress on that one in the near future. For now it's back to the watercolours and the 'dandy-lion'. Till next time~

WIP

...I remember a time ago, an incident (aka a really rainy day when I had to run in the rain that resulted in my notebook-cum-organizer being drenched and half the things written inside were all runny) led me to come up with a life motto: 'Say No to Stabilo'. Reason being all the things written in said notebook with a Stabilo pen ran as if all the king's horses and all the king's men were after them. Yeah. I guess it doesn't need to be said that the king's entire cavalry regiment were unable to restore those lost words in the rain-swollen notebook, so yeah. Say No to Stabilo became the slogan when anything important needed to be penned down.

And here I am, inking an A3 drawing entirely with a pretty lilac Stabilo pen, with plans of watercolours after.

Not sure how the end result will be, but I think my safest bet would have a clean, digital copy secured before I proceed with the whole painting with watercolours business. Yeap.

Tune in to more updates, folks~!

Memorusic

Hello hello, first week of 2012 gradually reaching a close; how has the new year been treating everyone so far? Amongst things I've been doing the most (or should be doing less of), reading seems to have taken up a considerable amount of my time. Not that I mind, I actually miss spending uninterrupted hours of reading. Those moments when you forget about everything around you and you're watching and living in the world of the book. When I have a house of my own, one room must definitely be a library, no matter how small.

But, anyway, as the title of the post might hint, the new year and reading isn't really what I'm here to ramble about. I was pondering on the relation between music and memory, and how sometimes, listening to certain songs or music would revive a certain moment in your past. I'm sure a lot of you have something similar happening to you. Like how Gackt's Jesus reminds me of Christmas, particularly the festive season in Singapore, and yet I can't explain to anyone why it does. Maybe it was because the single was released in December or something, but yeah. Emo rock song reminds me of fairy lights and Santa, haha.

Another one of these music-memories is when I'm listening to Pendulum's Immersion album. This one reminds me of the day when Esmond and I went on our adventure to The Click Shop in SS/2. I remember listening to the album on the bus ride to the train station, so when the tracks play again I remember the traffic, the bus rolling along, and the hot sun outside and the cool air-conditioning of the bus inside.
This memory I am particularly fond of. I loved how we went out to someplace both of us had never seen, and not knowing what to expect at all. Getting on the train and riding along, then to look for the right buses to get on. And when we found the place, it was accomplishing a mission or finding treasure XD. Even the odd town bus we took back into the city centre was fun. Just to see all those sights, and places I'd never seen, however normal they are, felt exciting. I suppose that's the whole idea of seeing new sights, to feel refreshed and invigorated by the new experiences you get. And yet, to this very day, I still haven't actually taken a single serious lomo shot with Diana XD. I suppose this is one of those rare moments when it really doesn't matter the destination, but it is the journey that matters.

In the off chance you were wondering what this post meant, well. It doesn't mean anything, really. Imagine memory like a nice, well-stocked wine cellar, growing day-by-day. I just happened to take out a bottle of vintage from July of 2011 and took a nice, long drink from it, reliving its sweet, delicious taste again.
I'm not sure why I even bothered with the reference to the wine, I should've just said that every time I listen to Immersion the very same memory would come back to me, so that no matter what I happen to be doing, I pause and think myself back to that sunny day that I enjoyed every moment of.

That's all for now. Enjoy the rest of the week, folks.

First post

Of the new year!

Here's to a good, productive year full of health, wealth and success for all of us! *chugs down champagne from cask*. This post shall be relatively short, as I've spent the entire day with my nose buried in Murakami's 1Q84 and I'm in no mood to leave the pages for too long now.
I updated my Skype at last! I knew something had to be odd with the way I never appear online as soon as I log on, so I checked for updates, and sure enough a new one was available. Hopefully it'll resolve the problem.
How was your New Year's celebrations? Mine was...uneventful in a positive way to say the least. Spent the early mornings of the eve throwing dinner back up. Curse you food poisoning! The end result was a funny tummy, medication and hours of sleep during the day. Now that I'm marginally better I'm stuck in Murakami's book and I don't see any way of stopping until the book is completed.

Ooh, random thought. I believe being in a relationship somewhat ages you O^O. Is it me or am I just dreaming? I mean, at the beginning there were these two adorable little kids just got into university, celebrating a boy who just turned 19 (and celebrating some *ahem* other things as well, of course =P)...


...and then you have them a couple of months later and bam. You'd think they aged twenty years overnight or something.

...Okay, maybe not. Maybe it's just me =P. But hey, you have to admit we're both freaking adorable.

I hope I'll get to spend the next Christmas and New Year and the next aeons of my life cycle with you Esmond~! Happy New Year to YOU and to EVERYBODEH READING THIS~~!!! <3 <3 <3

Also, a private Happy New Year wish to myself! I need to make a resolution's list, but since I'm at it, here's to a long, fruitful year of blogging for me and my fellow blogmates! =D