I have not watched much movies because I’m the queen of procrastination and by the time I get down to wanting to watch a movie, it’s off the screens. But last week, I got dragged to catch my first in, what, 2 months?  The movie seemed dodgy initially because I judge movies by looking at their posters and I couldn’t find the poster at the cinema. So I was a little wary till I finally saw this…

…Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds who is sooo cute I yanked my friend right into the cinema for tickets! The show was pretty good. A lil draggy at some parts but mostly really funny. I couldn’t stop laughing!

Basically, The Proposal is about Margarate Tate (played by Sandra Bullock) who has to get married or risk getting deported back to her hometown. She decides that the easiest solution would to be marry her personal assistant Andrew Paxton (played by Ryan Reynolds). The story goes on and I’m not gonna spoil it for those who have not watched it. But trust me, it is definitely worth the watch!

Strangely, the movie kinda reminded me of an Interdisciplinary Studies (IS) elective module I took last year called ‘Understanding Relationships: Love & Sexuality’. For those of you who don’t know, we Ngee Ann students get to take all kinds of IS modules throughout our 3-year course, like Sports & Wellness in Year 1 (you can choose from 20 electives like Sport Climbing, Hip Hop or Yoga!)  or like ‘History of Rock and Roll’,  ’Serious Fun with e-Games  Design’ and ‘Starting a Business’ in Year 2. In our final year, we get to sign up for modules like ‘Events Communication’, ‘Mobile Robotics’ and alot more. The point being that just because you’re taking Accountancy, for instance, doesn’t mean you’ll be restricted to dabbling with numbers the whole time. After all, we have a million other interests too, no? (:

Ok, ok, AS I WAS SAYING, the elective module ‘Understanding Relationships : Love & Sexuality’. I could have selected many other more interesting modules but I thought it would be really funny to find out what this is all about. I mean, I had a sneaking suspicion it may be tacky and alll, telling us how great love is and how we should all just fall in love, get married and be happy. Surprisingly, it wasn’t anything like that.

In fact, I have to say it taught me quite a bit about handling relationships of every sort - love, family, friends. We learnt the basic concepts of communication in relationships, like techniques to help others better understand our perspective. During every lesson, we also wrote a reflection piece which kinda worked for me (: . I have to say that my friends and I were definitely proven wrong about this!

Anyway, before I end off my loooong post, just wanna say…HAPPY TEACHERS’ DAY to all the teachers and lecturers out there! What would we do without you?! (:

Okay, as i write this, a couple of my friends have yet to finish all their papers. But as the exam period comes to a close (we’re mid-way i think), you start to hear excited talk about short getaways, shopping trips, beach outings and such.

Well, the end of exams mean one thing for me and my friends, and it’s a bit of an irony because it involves being out in the sweltering heat for a few hours (something I detest). Yes, since i’ve been 13 (that’s 7 years now), one of my few joys in life has been street soccer. In other words, i do not mind getting burnt doing something i enjoy. My secondary school, Jurongville, was fortunate enough to have its own street soccer court, albeit a small one, so when I came to Ngee Ann, I was thrilled to discover the multi-purpose sports court. Situated near the bus stop at the student plaza, this court basically functions as a futsal/street soccer court for fanatics like me.

It’s generally rare to find a court with proper goal posts, one without a torn net or missing floor markings. Ngee Ann’s court comes with proper standard markings and really nice goal posts with nets! Now this may not sound impressive to the ordinary man-on-the-street but if u’re an avid fan of the beautiful game as i am, then you’d understand (:

Last Monday, I played at Nee Ann’s court with my friends. We usually head down around 4pm and there’ll be like a million other teams waiting to play, but it’s worth the wait! Just that day, i was sitting by the court waiting for our turn when it struck me- here’s one place where you can really see a whole range of people, some quirky, some downright funny.

There are players from every course, with the better ones generally coming from engineering and accounting. Being mass comm-ers, we’re sometimes labelled the ‘not so good’ players. But whether or not we’re good doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. When all the players from the different courses come together to have fun, it’s truly a sight to behold. And if soccer gives us that, then kudos to the game.  

So cheers to the holidays that’s coming and cheers to many more hours of fun in the court, at least until i graduate )=

So. Fame. I was just kinda curious about this Facebook application that’s gotten NP’s ICT department all smiley.

I mean, I saw it in the papers and was all “:o” when they said Fame was created by our very own grads. I mean, I’ve played Sorority Life (join my house, let’s go kick a** :DDD), Restaurant City (forgot how long ago I logged in), Pet Society (is my pet even alive? ;o;) and all the other games, so I was really, REALLY curious about Fame.

Ummmm, so, Fame.

My first thought when going through the whole introduction sequence (they have an introduction sequence!!) was that it’s pretty darn cool. And just thinking that someone I brush past in NP’s Makan Place might be the next creator of some über cool app is just like, whoa.

While it’s still a tad too complicated for me to grasp (maths is not my forte, sadly) the game’s entertaining. You can play with your own friends or random strangers. Plus! You get to compete for real-life prizes (i’m not spending my ‘money’ lmao, they have $200 up for grabs this week ;D) and buy stuff like Aaron Kwok and Lee Minho and stuff so I’m kinda amused xD;

For those who want to give it a try, here’s the link http://bit.ly/1GawTi

I hope it catches on real soon, on a massive scale. It’ll be way, way, way, way more fun then.

Okay, so with our internship coming to an end, I went out with old friends to watch GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Granted, I do love action movies, comic book based ones even more so. But GI Joe… This movie I enjoyed for a completely different reason.

Cool gadgets, check.

Huge explosions, check.

Missiles, bombs, heavy artillery, check, check and check.

 

 

It was altogether a great combination for a Friday evening movie with my friends, and I was totally enjoying myself till Lee Byung-Hun came out, wherein I totally spazzed in my seat. All suave and stoic in white, he played Stormshadow, the bad guys’ ninja assassin. In the midst of his totally tight fight with the GI Joes’ Snake Eyes, his shirt inevitably gets shredded to pieces, exposing his torso and inducing squeals of delight from the theater’s female audience.

In my mind, I stood up and clapped. It was just that… spazz-worthy!

… All in all though, this post’s got to have a point, right? At least besides the fact that Lee Byung-Hun, despite being more than a decade older than our generation, is nonetheless extremely attractive…

Ahem, the point, yes, the point of this post. Seriously though, lately there’s been an influx of Korean stars making their way to Hollywood. Rain’s admittedly somewhat embarrassing performance in Speed Racer being one, of course.

For a long time Asians in Hollywood movies meant that they were either 1. Martial Artists or 2. Owners of Chinese Restaurants. It takes quite a lot to break into Hollywood, regardless of how popular one is in Asia. So it made me really proud, and happy, to see him be so popular suddenly.

Anyway, I’m off to rent the dvd for Bungee Jumping Of Their Own, a movie Lee Byung-Hun starred in in 2001. Also, All In, his drama featuring the casino world, is showing on Starhub Ch 172.

What do you do when your friend’s birthday is coming and the whole gang has not decided how to celebrate the special day? How about when it’s the first time meeting your girl or boyfriend’s closest pals? Or perhaps when lessons end early and home just doesn’t sound right? Well, one word (2, actually) comes to mind. Settlers Cafe.

For those of you who have not heard of Settlers, check out the outlets at Clarke Quay and SMU. Settlers has seen the better days of birthdays gone by. In the past 5 years (since secondary 3), I have been to Settlers year after year for someone’s birthday, a social gathering, and even meeting my ex’s friends. And the place just doesn’t get old!

I remember telling myself then that it was a really good idea to mix good food with loads and loads of board games (with some really quirky titles, and some mobid ones). Combine that with really reasonable prices and it’s a formula that can’t go wrong. The setting is perfect for nervous first-times or catching up on old times with household titles. Laughter rings out like no tomorrow and cups are sure to be spilt, but the staff are really friendly, and at the ring of a bell (under your table), they’ll appear to help tutor you on any game you wish to play. In other words, no more long draggy manuals to decipher, and you can simply concentrate on enjoying the game!  

As you can see from the picture above, comfortable chairs, cushions and beanbags are provided for your comfort and the setting is really awesome for just chilling. I apologize if this post sounds like an ad. I’ m just really a huge fan of the whole ‘boardgames with friends’ idea. (:

Only recently did I discover that Settlers was started by a bunch (6, actually) of Ngee Ann Polytechnic engineering grads. I’ll admit to feeling a sense of pride that this ingenious idea originated from my very own schoolmates (:

It’s good to know that when school reopens, there will be loads of places in NP where I can chill over board games with friends. For one, there’s an area called Board Games Zone within Lifestyle Library (near the bubble tea kiosk). Here’s where you can book out board games, sit on comfy bean bags (that i can never get up from) and play an impressive collection of board games for as long as you want. Also, if you don’t already know, there are loads of board games at OurSpace too!

It’s good to know great ideas start here, go a long way out of school, and then come back (: Am looking forward to next sem already!

Imagine standing right smack in the middle of a noisy, slightly rowdy (at least where I was!) and sweaty crowd for three whole hours without any chance to sit down or relax or anything at all, because that’s what I had to do on Wednesday when I went for the Lady Gaga concert at Fort Canning Park! But was it worth it? Well…. Kind of. Let’s just say I’m glad I didn’t pay the full price of $88 (or was it $98?) or, worse yet, $100+ (for those who bought it directly at the door).

We arrived at Fort Canning Park at ~6:45pm (gates open at 7pm or something) just to be greeted by an insanely long queue that snaked all the way through the park pathway to the carpark and out towards the entrance (hard to describe, but it was LOOOOOOONG). And it was a humid evening too, oh woe. At least they gave out some non-Gaga related hand fans (I think it was promoting the F1 race? Not sure, I lost mine in the midst of all the chaos), which we could use to -kind of- fend off the heat. This just reminds me of the time when I was a child and I suggested building an air-conditioned dome to enclose Singapore (similar to what happened in The Simpsons movie?). HEY if it actually happened, we’d all be living in pure comfort, man. FORGET REALITY FOR A SECOND and just think about it! Awesome, eh?

Anyway, we finally got in after quite a while of standing around. When we entered, it was already half-filled and we ALREADY felt suffocated. All-in-all, I think there was like 10,000 people in the audience? MADNESS, I tell you. So for about an hour and a half (until about ~8.45pm I think), we were ‘entertained’ (I use this word lightly) by DJ Inquisitive and some beatboxer, after which a huge white cloth dropped down and everyone cheered because we all thought - IT’S STARTING! Yeah well, way to let us down, because we ended up staring at THIS for about 45 minutes. It got so bad that someone near me even said “Man, I think this is the concert” and when someone came out to ask if we were having a good time, everyone replied “NOOOO”. Hilarious!

Then, at 9:30pm, after waiting almost THREE HOURS in total (counting queuing time), SHE CAME OUT. And all was forgiven (well, mostly). I can’t say I feel the same way about her anymore, but at least I managed to take a few decent shots (yeah this time I brought my DSLR) and videos (with awful audio, but still)! Way too many to post all, so I’ll just upload a couple:

And this is just 1/10th of the photos I took at her concert (I had nearly 100 but to upload everything here would be crazy! The actual performance was short though - only about 40 minutes (yes, it was rather disappointing!) She started the show with her Candy Warhol short movie (which makes NO SENSE whatsoever) that was played at her exclusive showcase earlier this year (I went for that one too, so I was REALLY afraid that she was just going to do the same thing and leave… which meant $70 wasted to watch a rerun. THANK GOD it wasn’t exactly the same).

After that strange excerpt (where she combs her hair a lot and talks to someone with a faux - or at least sounds that way - British accent), the concert really began, with all her typical songs - Paparazzi, Just Dance, LoveGame etcetc, and ended with, as always, POKER FACE.

Overall, not too bad! I just wish it could have been less packed (the showcase was way better because at least it was crowded BUT air-conditioned!) and longer. Have a heart! It’s hot out, everyone’s thirsty and it’s been a long and tiring day for all of us. If you’re going to perform for only 40 minutes, please don’t make us wait two and a half hours. You’re not that worth it. At least what she lacks in punctuality, she makes up with flair and WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD costumes such as this thing that I can only describe as DONUT NECK! With weirdness like that, you just can’t stay angry too long.

P.S. Lady Gaga’s going to be on the cover of hype - NP’s very own magazine! Yep we managed to land ourselves an interview with her, as well as attend the press conference and everything. Pretty exciting really. So be sure to pick up one of those magazines if you see it around!

So last Sunday morning, I somehow managed to yank myself out of bed and also yank R my mystery friend out of his bed so we could head over to Zouk. It was quite a feat considering the fact that I usually sleep so in on Sundays that I barely see the sun sometimes. Yeah yeah okay, now I can see some raised eyebrows, not too sure if it’s about me going to Zouk on a Sunday morning or about the fact that I sleep in too much. If it’s about Zouk, no I’m not hallucinating neither do I have some secretive part-time job to clean Zouk but I went for Zouk Flea ‘n’ Easy market!

from FashionNation