MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY!

more about “MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY!“, posted with vodpod

 

What I wanna be for Halloween!

This is a genius tutorial! The mask is just so darn pretty. I think I may lack the makeup skills to do this though. Argggh. Nevermind. If all else fails I’m going as a CORPORATE SLUT ™. hehehe. That should be easy, I already have office wear.

more about "What I wanna be for Halloween!", posted with vodpod

Like an apparition, you don’t seem real at all

…Like a premonition of curses on my soul.

..Break? What break? I forsee not having much (if any) sleep for the next few days.

Anyway, yesterday I attended IPRS Young PR Networking Night.

Was pretty interesting! Er, if I say so myself. Got a few name cards but didn’t network MUCH. Talked a little to one of the CNA reporters I’m more stuck on journalism  myself.

I say never say never though. The future is dim and murky, and money MAY just be a problem :/ (PR pays better in case you’re wondering whats thats all about.)

Talked with classmates till 1-2am (that’s a first!) at Starbucks after that. Was mostly random crap, but heck, these are the things that bind people together. Strings of friendship bound by random crap. Haha. (You see, this is why I can’t be emo. I always ruin sentimentality with absurd comments.)

Will we be the same one year from now?

We shall wait and see, and just bask in the glory of being young and irresponsible before taking a few more steps towards the straight and narrow path.

Also, need to train alcoholism. Networking=more jobs in this industry, and I get friendlier after a few drinks.

Cerita Hantu Yang Sangat Menyeramkan.

Sorry to non Malay speakers.

My cousin posted this up on Facebook and I found it pretty amusing. HAHA. It’s an essay by a primary school kid.

Read the comments of the cikgu HAHA so mean!

I LOVE SCHOOL.

I am not trying to be a contrarian because many people are going: OH I hate school so much work mountains rivers of it I’m gonna drown and die bla bla bla. (obviously this is exaggerated haha.)

But seriously,  if I had not studied what I wanted and went into something like “International Relations”  then I may not have:

1) Met insiders in the media industry

2) Learnt how to write properly as a journalist. (the narrative style has to stop trying to take over my work. To clarify, in the beginning I think I was a pretty mediocre person when it came to journalism modules. At least now I’m improving.)

3) Met nice teachers who didn’t look down on us private school students. (anddd its still amazing how some of them are professors and everything, yet your run of the mill NUS/NTU student can see it as his moral rights to turn his/her nose up at you. Class has much to do with behaviour and how you treat others and not how much you/ your PARENTS earn.)

4) Learnt to develop a work ethic. Long gone are my lazy arsed days of being an unmotivated student. If I want to get where I want to be, I have to show I’m serious about it, and I am.

Yes,yes, I know journalism/PR isn’t a specialized degree but I believe right now in school small as it may be, opportunities are present. If you are too busy being sulky and negative, I don’t think its gonna help you much so we all should take advantage of this  (relatively) free time we have as a student. I know the working world is probably tougher and a 100% more scary but we have to grit our teeth, and take it on. Only those on top set the rules, you may say. If you don’t try, you’ll never be on top and may not have the chance to make a change. </idealism>

There you go! Schools not that bad after all. Sure there is a flurry of assignments and such, but it really helps you to learn to be relevant and worse comes to worse, you learn how to do ACADEMIC writing -_- Anyway, this is what journalism is all about. Having not enough time to do anything but having to do it anyway

Of passion, pride and paychecks.

So guys, I’m pretty late on this on but I just caught the September Issue, which is supposedly a documentary on Anna Wintour. I found it to be less so and concentrated more on Vogue and the painstaking amount of work they had to do MONTHS in advance for their biggest issue in the year – The September Issue ™. Hence the title.

It’s a pretty short one, clocking only 90 minutes, so much of the footage has actually been cut out. Much has been said about the infamous Anna Wintour’s icy demeanour, but I feel that after I’ve watched it, I’ve come to understand her better. Not that this is a heart and soul confession sort of deal, most of the time, Anna IS business. And perhaps that is why she is known for being an ice queen. (remember Miranda Priestly? Well, she’s not half as beastly as Priestly but with her regal poise and unflappable demeanour, I half expected her to say the infamous line: That’s all.)That being said, the staff at Vogue are actually pretty sensibly dressed. I think they amp it up during Fashion Week, but most of their clothes at work spoke BUSINESS. So all the crap about running around wildly when the boss enters in their designer stilletos is just crap. Oh, and most of the time, the sample sized clothing stays on the model. Not that I doubt they get free stuff, they just seem too busy to try them on while at work.

Anna is the person who launched the career of Marc Jacobs and John Galliano. (my favourite.)

He does crazy stuff like this. A mermaid geisha! How do they get those fans to stick there??? Guess its a trade secret.

She was the one who predicted that celebrity covers would be a big thing. (something I’m not fond of, but it just shows she has the nose for business, cos GOD KNOWS you can’t turn anywhere without seeing a famous smile or a pair of famous boobs peeking at you from a glossy cover of a magazine.) On this phenomenon, I agree wholeheartedly with creative director Grace Coddington (who is the heart of Vogue and actually seems to be the star of the show) : I don’t care if I don’t see any more celebrities on the covers of magazines. There was a time that fashion was fashion and they kept these people out of it. But well, without celebrities, the industry wouldn’t be doing so well. (more on that some other time perhaps.)

On Grace Coddington: I felt I could relate to her the most. Anna’s demeanour serves her well when ruling with an iron fist, but it fails her in this sort of thing when people are expecting something to make her SEEM more relatable. Also, she has an amazing sense of style and artistic direction: She knows she wants to tell stories through her photographs, and every detail is planned to perfection to achieve that. I felt really bad for her when a GORGEOUS photoshoot of hers was pulled from the issue, but I suppose Anna was going for commercial with this issue. Although I disagreed with what she did, this is the harsh truth if you work in the media: The editor decides. That’s all. (sorry couldn’t resist!)

Grace is the brains behind many creative and gorgeous photoshoots. This was one of my favourites and I was really happy when they showed a picture of it. Such a talented lady, don’t you think?

Alice in Wonderland, Vogue December 2003

I guess the documentary speaks to me and Grace’s story speaks to me mostly because I think I’m like her – I love the whole aesthetic of high fashion even if I don’t have the luxury to indulge in it and I think I understand what its like to want to work for passion. If I’m not wrong, Vogue staff aren’t particularly highly paid (Wintour would be an exception, but it took her VERY long to get there.) And despite seeing the ugly truths and hard work prevalent in it all, I feel more inspired to become a good journalist now more than ever. (not in magazines though.) Am I weird? I think so.

Three Wishes

You want three wishes/Want to fly the heavens/Want to swim like fishes/and one you’re saving for a rainy day/If your lover ever takes their love away.

more about “Three Wishes“, posted with vodpod

Busy busy busy

School this semester is crazy, I’ve been pretty busy!
What with the 2 submissions we had to do earlier in the week and countless group meetings to prep me to go down and meet a  PR consultant.

I slept a good 5 hours extra last night but I totally forgot that I had another group meeting today because I thought it was meant to discuss whatever I needed to do before going down, and since that was pushed to Thursday, it was off -_-

Oh well!

Guess all I can do is try to recharge this weekend because I’m seriously burnt out. I think my eye baggage can testify to that. Thank God for makeup. Amen.

Inane psychobabble. (redundant.)

I really really really really dislike doing business courses. Like what the hell, its so obvious that whatever theories posed just don’t work that way in real life.

If the company’s and the employee’s goals are truly aligned then it would mean of course, that Mr Taylor assumes that the corporation is NICE enough to reward one duly for their efforts (maximum productivity! whatever.)

I don’t think its the case here anyway.

Taylor fails to address people who are merely lazy arses. And that pretty much everyone in the world is a biased individual so its who you know, baybeh. Well, not just who you know but who you impress. So even if the veterans and who-to-knows in the industry are giant turds you HAVE to suck on it. And do  so somewhat impressively if you want promotion.

Right, let me tell you all a story. My mother used to work as a journalist, and she had this good friend who was clearly within the favour of the boss. (she lunched with him. ALL THE TIME.)

Obviously her colleagues were unhappy and she became labelled as a biatch for no good reason. Which of course, wasn’t good for her either because her colleagues refused to cooperate.

Then of course, my poor innocent mother got dragged into it by mere virtue of being pals with this person. -_-

So not only do you have to soar with the eagles but make sure that dodos aren’t gonna drag you down.

But anyway, my mother’s friend stopped working as a journalist and shifted to NZ because her husband is rich enough to. She then on started to express her Type A personality by building huge houses and being OCD about children messing it up. Really OCD.

Ah well, not everyone can get rich husbands who don’t mind your Type A and OCDness. So the conclusion is… theories are crap, but learning to make them sound convincing is  a great life skill. It will however, never prep you for the Real World. ™

For Marcus!

Since nothing exciting is happening lately other than 5 assignments, this post is dedicated to Marcus!

I’ve always wanted a gay best friend. Well I don’t have one but I have the next best thing. Marcus is thin, hairless and doesn’t mind shopping and loves luxury goods like Louis Vuitton! He intends to buy a 6k trenchcoat by paying two dollars every day. Well now he’s earning $4.50 an hour so he can speed up the payment… HAHA.

Seriously though…

Like you said, all of us are imperfect. I’m imperfect, you’re imperfect and we all make mistakes. I’ve made mistakes that have threatened my future simply because I was very short-sighted and I let emotions guide me, the unhealthy way.

So even though you’ve maybe made some imperfect decisions, it isn’t too late to realize that you can and must learn from them. Because that is truly the best way to treat whatever mistakes you’ve made. It is hard, I know but I think you know and I know that humans can, and always will change. You yourself should know what you have had to overcome. At least now you know where you want to go and that’s what is important.

Anyway! If you have troubles don’t always keep it to yourself. The irony of being a “cheerful” person is sometimes people can’t see what you’re going through because you put up a strong front and a smile on your face. People usually sympathize with those who display their unhappiness openly, for better or for worse while thinking a cheerful person is a strong one. I will be very busy these few weeks but if you need anything, I’m a call/sms away. I’m never too busy for my close friends