penang trip

penang. why are you so peaceful.

i love it. i will go back one day. to this day, i still could not believe me and my friend MJ walked the whole trip. WALKED. just 2 feet walking on whatever pavement/tarmac/dirt we can find.

and the self exploring just the trip much more worthwhile.

Amelie Cafe, just before Khoo Kongsi

Blue Mansion

blue mansion tour (its really worth the tour, but there is only a few tours a day. but if you are interested, you could stay in the mansion too)

chew jetty - one of the many Hokkien Jetties around

penang coffee shop

artwork by artist Ernest Zacharevic, lovely. be sure to ask your hotel's reception desk for a copy of the map of all his artwork. you can't find those maps at the airports. another thing about (free) maps in penang, is they are NOT to be trusted. i suggest you go to their local bookstore (i got mine at POPULAR) to get a proper map, with small lanes and roads. IT HELPS. 

these welded iron artworks are not by Ernest Zacharevic but you could easily find them near Ernest's works. as usual, you can't find them on the free maps. you need to go to your hotel or to a travel agency over there to get it. my friend and i took to these maps to "treasure hunt" these artworks and its very exciting!

khoo kongsi - a tired rickshaw driver taking a needed rest

eastern & oriental hotel - we didn't stay here, we stayed opposite it (Bayview Hotel Georgetown). we did make a promise that if we ever had the budget, we would come back to stay here

lovelane hotel is really a hotel. quite pricy but its worth to stay

peranakan museum - go for their tours

snake temples - lack of snakes though - i remember when i was a kid, i came to snake temple and the ground were filled with snakes.. literally a temple of snakes. but now they just kept them in dirty boxes, and cashing on a few bucks for photo-taking. its quite a sad environment for the snakes

sun yat sun building

its already what.. 2013?

just one movie and it got me blogging. julie and julia.

i just wish i could be like julie, its just so easy for her to type so freely to her readers. i wish i have that kind of skills and ability. anyway, first things first:

how are you, my beloved blog? 

i think its because i have relied on a "visual blog" to blog about my life, nowadays. instagram. addictive and so "important". you can't live without it, you just turned cold turkey. for real. endless scrolling, following, unfollowing, tapping hearts, blocking spammers, scrolling again, tapping again.. as much as i loath this routine, i can't live without it.

and its just so intriguing/entertaining/nosy/curious to see what people from the other side of the globe are "visual blogging" too. i've just became a nosy, irritating gossipy neighbour, meddling in people's lives, through the square windows of instagram.

is this healthy? to be completely, utterly addicted to instagram? i could never see myself pass through a busy day at work, without involuntarily signing into instagram and involuntarily tapping hearts onto photos of people i wish were my real friends. in this life.

sigh.

good night ~

now it is..

the time for me to blog.

so long have i forsaken your existence! i miss my blog. so clean, so neat.

what has happened so far during my absence.. well, i've graduated and has since started work.

i like my work. seriously. its been month 3 so far. but there are glitches here and there. a little. ok, fine, quite a few. the place i work at is very corporate, filled with a lot of people who's expression feels like he/she has a wedgie. everyone seems to be on an edge. in the 1st month of work, i'm fine with the tension and stuff, prolly 'cos its your FIRST month, you are in the tension itself! but as you tend to sink in a little, you feel bothered by all this wedgie-d people. why the stress? why the tension? why the wedgie??

i am a very laid back person. i work well when i feel inspired. but i can't really, as if someone has put a leash on me. i need to breathe.. i need space! i'm claustrophobic. the people (sans the boss) i work with are fine people. but when they are on "corporate timing", you expect them to be so high-strung like they got a g-string wedgie. not. good. in any way. and their tension seems to spread through the office department, especially to the boss, and finally to us, small chippies.

i also work well when i'm dressed comfortable. i can't work in... bustiers? high heels? button up shirts? hello? choke? i feel trapped. i wanna be released. physically and mentally. but my boss, has an issue with my dressing, and so does the company. gosh. just gimme a uniform already! and court shoes with them! gosh..

omg.. looking at the past and current pictures, my face got bigger.. (though the weight is the same, but its always the case for my face.. i duno... maybe its too much air..) aw man... time to lose weight.. no more dinners! back to my 2 meals a day.. or is it.. my hair got thinner? either way.. oh shucks.

cupcake anyone?

i bought a pop-up book and glad i did - Victoria Market

South Yarra, Melborne

on the way to Puffing Billy

outside Puffing Billy

on the Puffing Billy steam train

pardon my behaviour..

i went to melbourne for 2 weeks, before i started work... oh how i miss melbourne.. *sad face* when can i have a holiday again..

p.s. pictures are from friends, love them and them

Films as we liked it

I would like to know what determines a popular culture, especially a national culture that could affect the whole of Asia, and maybe the world. How does a country affect another country, since the other country have their very own beliefs and culture? Take for example the Korean Wave.

They have made used of their film industry as communication tool to the world. Films are dream factories, they conjured dreams that receiver like us wished it were possible that it may happen to us. Korean films were able to do that successfully. They took a dream or a wishful scenario and injected that scene into the characters’ also mundane everyday life. Korean film gave the viewers a hope, a chance, a belief that it could happen to them, as so it seems, they have similar characteristics as the characters on the shows, which is the use of “soft power” as persuasive communication.

A dream does not make up a film. Other platforms like props, the genre and the actors also help boost viewership. The narrative of the film is able to naturalise the scenario for the viewers to relate to, and thus, adding value to the ideologies behind the film. Every film has an ideology behind it. Be it a meaningful ideology from a documentary like ‘The Cove’ or a persuasive underlining ideology like ‘The Devil wear Prada’.

Korean and Japanese dramas are based on facts of similar modern temporality in real life, where we faced with scenarios of urban consumerism, western influences, pursuing the same dreams and aspiration. It gives viewers the empowerment that if the character of the show could have the power to overcome any obstacles that came his/her way, chances of it happening to them is high.

Dramas like these are able to tap on viewers emotions easily, due to the realisation of the similar background stories that the viewers could relate to with the character. These dramas are usually popular with the female audiences, since female are brought up with notions that there are always a prince to come sweep her off her feet, a step mother that stops her from pursuing her dreams and a fairy tale ending, from the western fairy tale books we read when we were younger.

Therefore Asian dramas are usually ends with a fairy tale ending, in an urban layout. They all share the similar plots. The main characters would face a problem that hindered his/her career and love life just at the peak of his/her life. Whilst he/she goes through the trials and tribulations, he/she finds will power and empowerment to continue to ‘work hard’ to get where he/she later succeeds with: a love life and a dream career. The plot is overused and will always be used again and again as this is the very plot that we are all brought up with: with the education we have, we aimed at our dream careers and have a prince/princess to live with, happily ever after.

No movie/film/drama is actually about stories of failure, of course unless it is a documentary and info-documentary, but yet although most documentaries tries to give light to the real truth and realisation of what is happening to us, viewers is given the option to choose to watch and accept their plots, or still be ‘trap’ in the dream-like scenario sheltered by the drama/film/movies made just for them.