yaysaturday-blog

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Intro

This is my social media blog, also kind of like a personal project, since I figured if I have to do it for school, I might as well do it with some heart right? I'm challenging myself to do something I've never done before every saturday (mainly because everyday sounds too tedious) and this is gonna be a fun adventure so if you'd like, stick around for a read! :-)

You can follow my 140-letter rants or personal visual diary if in the rare case, you'd like to know more about me!

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“What’s so scary about a hat?”

"Here is my secret. It is very simple. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” said the fox to the Little Prince.

These words were probably the inspiration behind French sculptor Arnaud Nazare-Aga’s latest art project The Little Prince in the Dark, where the poignant story comes to life for the blind.

Unlike conventional exhibitions where no-touching signs are a frequent sight (almost worthy of being an exhibit itself), visitors are able, even encouraged to touch the fibreglass resin sculptures displayed. Each sculpture comes with an audio accompaniment, where the overhead speakers upon sensing movement, trigger a description of the scene presented in the sculpture. Exhibited at the Alliance Française de Singapour at Newton, the sculptures are painted fluorescent white and placed in a dark room, the only light stemming from the many intricate stars plastered amok the walls apart from the UV sculptures (and also from dozens of iPhone screens trying to capture an instagrammable shot... I’m most definitely guilty).

Though the audio commentary would provide familiarization with the Little Prince story for the strangers, being a personal fan (and current obsessor) of it definitely helped in making this visit much more enjoyable. As the audio commentary played, it wasn’t long before imagination took a hold and in my head, it seemed like the sculpture was moving to match whatever I heard. (I swear I took my pills this morning) It was delightful, seeing what used to be simple storybook illustrations in the past come to real, tangible life at the present. 

Being sighted and having enjoyed the experience this much already, I can only imagine the joy the blind must have, having really “seen” the Little Prince story come alive for them with their hearts.

For those who can’t seem to get enough, have no fear Hannah is here; 1. The Little Prince movie is set to be released on 29 July 2015 in France (and probably soon after into Singapore I CAN’T WAIT!!!)

2. Did someone say LITTLE PRINCE CREAMERY? This quaint little establishment exudes feels all ‘Little Prince’-ey, with its gorgeous handpainted walls resembling childhood doodles as well as every cafe-hopping hipster’s picturesque ice cream waffle. It’s a place to be for times where you just want to wile away afternoons reading a book (and you know what that book is!).

P/S: This little prince here, who happened to be my companion to the exhibition, will probably be staying right here with me on Earth for a long, long time.

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The world's worst kept secret

Wednesdays. Not only is it the day to wear pink, Wednesday is also the day Singapore Poly's foodcourt 5 becomes even more unbearably crowded because of Starbuck's 1-for-1 deal. My pal and I decided then, it was a great idea to order something from their SECRET MENU and make their lives a tad bit difficult. YES YOU HEARD ME RIGHT, SECRET MENU. 

I wanted Red Velvet at first, they didn't have that apparently. Anyway, the Ferrero Rocher frappé tasted just like liquid ferrero rocher. SO GOOD, I wouldn't mind pissing the baristas off again just for this. Butter beer is basically a toffee nut frappé in muggle terms, I'm not really a fan of its flavour but the name just carries so much swag considering Harry Potter drinks it too. The Nutella frappé was okay, my friends and I were trying so hard to taste the nutella in it but if you're a chocoholic, this is your drug of choice! If you're interested to find out more about Starbuck's ultra-exclusive top-secret menu, approach your resident white girl OR google it because it's all over the internet. Secret, indeed.

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Aliwal Urban Arts Fest

(Loving the poster!) Anyway, YES! My friends and I decided to join them cool kids and go for this hip looking music/ arts fest – I'm sorry, Eminem, but it's about time I started showing the local music scene some love. We strolled in slightly after 7pm so we only got to catch like, three acts.

                                                    I AM DAVID SPARKLE performing They were very rock-oriented and instrumental, very good though not my preferred genre.

                                                               FUNGKIMUNKEES THE FUNGKIMUNKEES WERE REALLY GOOD! The band consisted of the saxophone, the trumpet etc and the blend of sounds were a feast for the ears. Being a funk/ jazz band, they even invited the Lion City Lockers to dance for us – not expecting that at all!

                                    Mandatory selfie of us looking like we're having fun

Aside from the music, there were also several art exhibitions, one of them being a live graffiti painting area where we could see the artists publicly committing the crime on vans.  It's quite heartwarming to see the local arts and music scene blossoming and yes, I'm pretty sure soon enough my iTunes would be filled with the sounds of obscure local musicians...

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Why get thinner when you can get dinner?

Last Wednesday was the annual SPSU Appreciation Dinner and might I say, it was the best fancy dinner I've ever been to! (It being my first ever fancy dinner apart from wedding dinners and how many times have I said the word dinner already so does the word sound weird yet.) Kirthana and I were the jokers who somehow thought that last-minute shopping was a good idea and we ended up being very fashionably late, wearing outfits that were bought on the day itself.

                                         Not too shabby for last minute shopping, I feel? CASS Club was sitting with some of the people from SPSU whom we didn't know and there's nothing like icebreaker games to make things less awkward! There was also the Mr & Miss Popular/ Best-dressed contests and lucky draws and the prizes were REALLY good; headphones, iPods etc. (shouldn't have walked under the ladder the other day)

                                                    Winner winner chicken dinner WARNING! GRAPHIC CONTENT

What better way to end a dinner than to go to the washroom and take selfies? (And keeping Khirul, the only guy in our company, waiting outside for a long, long time)

After leaving the hotel, the three of us went for our own mini after-party, loitering around Orchard because we didn't feel like going home. We ended up settling at the 24-hour Starbucks till the first train at 5am was available, talking about life over BUTTER BEER. Yes you heard me, BUTTER BEER, one of the "secret" drinks you can order at Starbucks but that's a story (and a blog post) for another day!

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I'm gonna pop some tags

Rules: 1. Checkout at exactly $3.00, no more no less 2. No repeated items 3. All items must be from Cheers 4. The person who buys the most number of items wins

1, 2, 3 GO! The challenge was harder than I thought. Cheers had somehow priced their items the way they did to potentially sabotage my chances of winning against fellow opponents Amanda and Amelia. The odds were not ever in my favour and things were looking bleak. Was it because I wasn't wearing the mockingjay pin? Amanda seemed to have a breeze of a time, being the first to checkout only like what, three minutes later, followed by Amelia. No prizes for guessing who was last, though technically it isn't my fault that Cheers doesn't have the right prices that add up to exactly three bucks, AM I RIGHT?!

So how do you say this without sounding cocky... GUESS WHO WON THE CHALLENGE B*TCHES!? So what was the prize, you ask? Bragging rights, what else.

                                                            The taste of defeat (2014)

Thanks Am & Am (see what I did there) for spending $3 to help me with this nonsense! Couldn't have done these without y'all, haha.

Check out their blogs here: Amelia & Amanda

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Will you do the fandango?

So what's new this Saturday? Learning my all-time-fav song of Queen on the uke; Bohemian Rhapsody. Bohemian Rhapsody was released back in 1975 and was one of Queen's best-selling hits. The song's a collection of 3 different parts: a ballad section with a sick guitar solo, an operatic passage and a hard rock section. (I personally prefer the first part the most. Freddie Mercury's voice is utterly stunning and heart-wrenching, especially when he sings the OOOH part) I literally got chills the first time I heard the song.

Well I took a bit of time to learn this portion so please do forgive the mistakes!!! I'm a huge fan of Queen and I've definitely not done any justice to the song through this "cover" (if you can call it that) so please do check out the original version by Queen here, I take no responsibility for any medical conditions that may happen to you after.

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Pixel Perfect

Being a part of the creative team for our class-organised event, this meant that we were in charge of producing all the publications and design deliverables for the event. With the theme being Digital Warriors, we had to come up with pixelated graphics of the 4 warriors to be published on the Digital Warrior's facebook page etc.

Clara imparted her legend-             waitforit                -dary Adobe Illustrator skills to me, teaching me how to manually pixelate images on the software.

                                                        Original image VS Pixelated image +1 point to skills! Being an aspiring designer, it's a pleasure to be able to learn something new on Adobe Illustrator and it's actually really easy once you get the hang of it! And yes, I do know how ridiculously geeky I sound now *snort*  

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And I always thought Cacao was a misspelling of Cocoa...

                                            Irish Cream Kitkat, yes you heard it right.

Apparently this alcoholic confection can only be bought in South Africa and my friend's sister went there and brought it back and I get to eat it so YAY FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS INDEED!

Let's all take a moment to admire how HIDEOUS my nails are HAHAHAHA aaaaand                                                                         *cough* back to the chocolate – Sadly, I was having the flu when I tried this so I couldn't really taste what I was eating. My friend however didn't like it (that's why he gave it to me pffft) and said he could barely taste the Irish cream. Ah well, it's still food so I'm not complaining! This is probably the only flavour other than the normal one that ever I've tried of Kitkat, haven't tried the green tea one even! What can I say, I'm just not a chocolate person. French fries. Fries over pies, fries over guys. Give a man a fish he'll eat for a day, give a man french fries he'll love you 5eva.

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"What are you studying in poly?" "Mass Comm!"

Looking back, I never would have imagined that I would be able to answer "Mass Comm" to such a question. I was a drop-out from Temasek Polytechnic and with fresh O-level grads being given priority, I never would have expected myself to get a place at SP's Diploma in Media & Communication (DMC). I was all prepared to be a nursing student at NYP in all honesty! Sure, it was hard at first. I was never the one to make friends easily and being in DMC has definitely been a challenge as I'm forced to step out of my anti-social shell. You had to be outspoken to a certain degree – People all around me were confident and loud thus the social pressure, and not to mention the sheer number of presentations meant that being outspoken was a "requirement" to excel. I've definitely changed throughout this journey and I'm thankful that I've met some really amazing friends along the way. People that I not only can joke with and be a douche to, but also to learn from and be inspired by.

                                 Adventure Time girlies LESS THAN THREE 5EVA

Group photo of all the group leaders and game masters for CASS FOC '13. Freshman Orientation Camp was SUPER fun and I got to meet/ work with new people I never had the chance to work with before! Really hyped up for CASS FOC '14!!!!!!!

This was taken after the stunning performance (called Waves) by SP's very own Strictly Dance Zone.

The Uninvited – One of CASS Club's many events and this one was to celebrate Halloween! A lamp got broken, kids got high on candy and fizzy drinks and most importantly WE ALL HAD FUN! Being a part of DMC has probably been one of the greatest blessings of my life so far, a fun though tiring hell of a ride and I couldn't be more thankful and amazed at the place I'm in right now. 

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Why is Amanda Er Chen so happy?

Various sources have confirmed that the woman pictured above smiling incandescently has recently been baptised.

(Not to insult your intelligence but if you didn't happen to know;) A baptism is a Christian rite of admission, meant to openly declare to the world about your faith. Water is sprinkled on the head and the water symbolises Christ, where when a person is immersed in water, the old self dies and the new self is born again in Christ.

After the baptism, the service ended with some singing of carols. The choir was also very prim and well put together, really reminded me of the black gospel choirs you frequently see in movies :') Attending my friend's baptism for the first time was a good experience. I'm happy that she got baptised because it means that she's taking her faith more seriously than before... So when will my turn come? I have no idea, to be honest. P.S. Thanks for the invite, Amanda! :-)

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Tis the season to kill all turkeys

Let me pretend I have readers and start off with  HI GUYS, HOW WAS YOUR CHRISTMAS? :-) Christmas this year wasn't exactly very magical, but yes I still enjoyed it. Receiving presents, giving way cooler ones, going Christmas SHAHPPINGGG, being all mushy and expelling the overwhelming gratitude that's piled up inside me all year. Of course, who can forget the parties *cough* parties in the name of celebrating Jesus' birthday of course. One of the best times was probably when the ADVENTURE TIME girls got together for a BBQ/Secret Santa exchange/sleepover! 

              Massive headroom needed to wrap my mind around this pleasant surprise A VINYL. FROM THE PRETENDERS. I don't listen to them neither do I have a vinyl player but still HOW COOL IS THAT!? THANKS SO MUCH SECRET SANTA *drumroll* CLARA LIM. I feel like I just got my starter pokémon from Clara and now I'm ready to step out of Pallet Town to collect 'em all at vinyl swap-meets cause I wanna be the very best!

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I Volunteered as Tribute

"Hi, would you like to buy umbrellas for charity?" That's how I spent one of my days during the Christmas season, helping out for CCIS (Celebrate Christmas in SG). Volunteers were planted everywhere on the streets of Orchard Road to sell umbrellas and postcards. They were overpriced (can't remember the exact price) but hey, it's for charity and double hey, it's Christmas. People just seem to be nicer during Christmas.

White shirt and jeans – that was the dress code and I remember feeling extremely underdressed and depressed because the people walking past me refusing my pleas to buy umbrellas all looked so gorgeous.

I catwang-ed myself because I looked particularly hideous that day pffft. So this is how I spent 23rd December yesssss one up to my reply when people ask me "So how was your Christmas?" People say they got presents, got fat, I could say "I volunteered" and sound like a saint.

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Mum, I'm getting a job

So as you all know, it's the holidays. And what better way is there to spend your time than to work at a globally franchised commercial coffeehouse chain where white girls frequent and cute male colleagues to make the hours shorter? Yep you guessed it – Starbucks. Well, that was the plan. But they never called me back. (I knew then there was a reason why I always preferred Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf)

Anyway, life goes on (sing it Noah!) and I have to do up a pretty looking resumé so my prospective employers will give me attention so...

My first attempt at making a presentable resumé TA-DAH! To be honest, I really dreaded the process, having to google what I needed to put in and READ... It's exhausting for homo-potatopiens like myself. And it's something new. I don't like new things. Well that kinda depends but generally, I'd prefer sticking to something I know. There were so many different kinds of resumes out there, those that included resume headlines, objectives, career summaries even. After half an hour of researching, deliberating on the perfect font and typing (with the occasional lamenting on the state of my life), I decided to just put in: employment history, personal information and education history.

Aaaand this is the end product. First shot at it, yay/ nay?

28/12/13 Update: Today, I got courteously rejected by Uniqlo AND hired by Lowrys Farm on the same day HELL YEAH BI*CHES!

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Rain killed our vibe

Baseball training as per usual. So what do we do at baseball? There's throwing drills, fielding drills, batting drills and other duties, like taking care of the field.

In baseball, the field is a sacred ground: if you treat it nicely, it'll be nice to you too. For example, if you were to take proper care of the field and rake it evenly, grounder balls (balls that bounce on the ground) would be easier to catch during an actual game.

                                                          Werk that rake, werk ittttttt

Mother weather decided to be particularly uncooperative that day and she rained on us. The field was flooded and a flooded field means SPONGING. It was my first time sponging a field, whoop whoop how exciting.

But prior to that................

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Day in a Life of Kid A

Kid A who? Kid A's the kid who has so much dough, he spends it at overpriced food vendors a.k.a. "cafés" consuming confectionary shizzle that satisfies no growing teen's needs. I was Kid A for a day, and together with my cousins we went to the famed PS Cafe!

                                                         Mandatory tourist shot.                                                  (I get extra points for the twist ✌)

This is the Banana Cream Pie I ordered, AAAAND it was delicious. ***This is the part where Hannah pretends to be a sophisticated food blogger. I was slightly disappointed at the "pie" because I was expecting an actual light, flaky pie (think chicken pies) but it turned out to be a cookie-textured shortcrust pastry. It was, however, really nice when paired with the bananas and cream. I'm the girl who says no to whipped cream every time I go to Starbuck's, yet somehow I found myself picking at the cream non-stop because it was just so yummy.

                                                               And sinful.                                                             And fattening.                                              I feel fat just typing this post out.

Expensive as it was, their portions were generous and everything tasted good so PS Cafe is definitely worth the buck! I mean, the ambience was nice and waiters were quite cute so what more can you ask for? You can check out PS Cafe at the following locations: (We went to the one at Paragon!) PS Cafe at A.S.H. Park 45 Ann Siang Road #02-02 S069719 PS Cafe at Harding Rd 28b Harding Rd PS Cafe at Palais Level 2, Palais S.C. 390 Orchard Rd PS Cafe at Paragon Level 3, Paragon S.C. 290 Orchard Rd PS Cafe Petit at Tiong Bahru No. 41 at BLK 78 Guan Chuan Street Tiong Bahru *Advertorial post. Unpaid, sadly.

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夜市

How better to start your journey at Red Dot Museum's MAAD than to take an INSANELY PRETENTIOUS HIPSTER PHOTO!? (that statement in itself is already pretentious, I'm sorry)

So what is MAAD? MAAD is the Market of Artists And Designers, a monthly Friday night celebration of local creativity at the red dot design museum. It is a platform to sell, gather feedback, test market or just to create awareness on your creative endeavours.

                                              Excuse me, Kirt, you're blocking my view. MAAD does not condone any selling of secondhand wares, so everything there is either imported or handcrafted. One booth that caught my eye was the book-binding booth, who knew there were so many different ways with with you could stitch together a book?! Another was the Gummi nail-sticker booth. They had so many pretty designs and it's really easy to put on, especially if you lack the skillz and patience. And you don't want your right hand nails looking ugly. (RIGHT HANDERS DO YOU FEEL ME) The lady was so nice too, giving us samples and stuff. Boo, I didn't take pictures of the booths so here's a picture of me with friends:

                              3D glasses for this real spiffy 3D calendar that was on sale We didn't buy anything there but it's a nice place to visit and look around (and if you have cash to spare). A lot of the vendors were selling their original designs, on t-shirts, totebags and what not and apart from wares, MAAD also hosted a life drawing session, where anyone and everyone can sign up, bring their sketch pad and draw together with the community of aspiring artists like themselves. All in all, it was a good experience and it was a pity we didn't get to see any of the live bands perform! (YES, THERE WERE LIVE BANDS!) Check out MAAD's facebook page here!

P.S., a very happy birthday to Clara Lim Yi Hui! Lub chew dip dip and I hope you liked the sashimi! :-)