Cheat Work Thursday

A few minutes after the movie ended, I was still slumped in my bed, felt like crying but couldn't. This movie is just dark and sad. Not even Michael Fassbender's full frontal could make you giggle and take away the pain you feel for his character. The score is evilly brilliant too, making us sense his silent misery right from the first few minutes of the movie. When his work computer was taken away and he was told that it was filthy with virus and porn (the Boss wondered if it was the intern who did it), I closed my eyes with two hands, almost felt sorry for this guy, wishing he wouldn't be embarrassed more in the movie. Here's my favourite review of Shame by Rene Rodriguez for Miami Herald that tells it perfectly how this movie will break your heart. (And read this one for a funny review: vulture.com .) I'm wondering though... who casually walks around their house naked? You know, like naked while making coffee or checking the answering machine, or someth...

Here are two of my favourite Phillip Phillips' performances, which mostly are from the later part of the season. I've missed watching Idols. It got me back at this version of Usher's U Got It Bad. U Got It Bad , Usher Volcano , Damien Rice I also think Mindi Abair , that awesome lady with saxophone, and Phillip Phillips are each other's secret weapons, by the way. Check her out especially in U Got It Bad, with killer shoes, and Movin' Out at the finale. (He also sang Fat Bottomed Girls in the top 6 week. Man, how awkward would it sound if the lyrics were translated into Malay. Seriously Queen, which one of you came up with it?)

One of my guilty pleasures is following the US election news. Guilty because I wish I was fascinated with my country's affairs as much. (I use 'much' and 'three news a year' interchangeably.) I've just registered with SPRM two weeks ago because I'm scared of my mother. She's going to nag me again if she finds out that I still haven't registered after so many elections. God, I'm too old for that nagging now. It'll be great if I ever get around to understanding what these two US parties keep arguing about someday. Which is a small detail. For now they got me at how their multimillion-dollar campaigns and speeches crafted. If you're not afraid to poke fun at yourself, and don't have to scream and pop your veins out of your forehead to deliver your speech, or don't (appear to) find it okay to attack your opponents' personal lives -- the actual content will kind of just fly past me. And we sooo don't do concession speeches o...

I looove this book. A lot. It feels like discovering Kinsella's books for the first time again. It makes me laugh, it makes me hold my breath, and it makes me want to stop the characters and offer them my insight. I've Got Your Number brings back the same excitement Kinsella's earlier books did. Maybe because I've read all her books, and some of the surprises in her recent works have kind of lost on me. Can You Keep a Secret, The Undomestic Goddess and the first two of the Shopaholic series made me laugh out loud in public, gasp in horror and probably almost cry too. But I'm a huge fan of Kinsella regardless. I read most of her books within 24 hours and force everyone I know to read them too. Sam Roxton reminds me of Harvey Specter, although Sam is supposed to have 'rumpled hair', while Harvey is basically the walking ad for hair products that sculpt your hair into a certain shape and make it stay that way for the whole year. It might get a tiny ex...

I'm currently listening to Yuna's beautiful, beautiful US debut album. My favourite is Tourist, but I can't find any songs that I don't like on it. I often imagine a perfect, calm day when I hear the songs, where I'd play them first thing in the morning, waking up fresh from a good night's sleep, thinking about a good day ahead: doing things that I like and hopefully making other people happy about them too. Then I'd hit the warm shower and boil some water for coffee or go out to buy breakfast. I'd even have time to scan the internet for an hour. And when traffic starts to ease, I'd freshen up, put on work clothes and makeup, and get ready to leave for work meetings, where everyone I meet is nice and kind and inspiring, and helps make me smarter every day. I'd be home in the evening, switching on my lavender home freshener first, then stretching my feet on the coffee table, planning what movie to watch that night and checking the internet a...

The best thing that happened to me this past week had to be the 70 hours I spent at my hometown, playing with Baby Noble : the happiest, smartest, kindest and most beautiful baby on earth right now. How is it possible that a baby does not get cranky at all or need a pacifier or a swing? I wonder which good deed I did in the past that got me this niece... However, this smart and beautiful baby owes me a beach vacation when she grows up... (Should I still go beach-vacation when I'm 60?) My mother was busy running errands (and shopping 🙄) for two days in a row, and she left me (and another sister) with this tiny baby, with very little instruction, which I only realized later. The idea was, this sister was supposed to be in charge of Baby Noble and I was just the sidekick, you know, the one who fetches the diaper or boils water. If I've ever fed a baby, it must be about 10 years ago and it was never a six-month-old. Two-year-olds, toddlers who can already speak and hold...

Thank you, Dain Said and everyone who made this movie. I saw Gila-Gila Remaja during the time when the only TV channels available here were TV1 to TV3, and the only Hollywood movies that I could watch were whatever TV2 was generous enough to show, regardless of how curious I was to see more. So I know Faizal Hussein was huge back then. Then I finally got the chance to see more of those Hollywood movies, and my movie-watching experience changed. Most Malay movies started to make me extra mad and want to scream at someone. But Bunohan is great. I read the good reviews months ago and made plans to see the movie but waited one day after another until it ended. Last weekend, I watched it six times on Astro First. Part of those six times was because I missed a lot of things on the first few watches. I was on babysitting duty and there were some other distractions. And the rest was because it got me at how relationships, emotions, motives and decisions were told. I didn't want t...

So I finished the first drawing, the one that I stopped at the neck:

This is my first DrawPlus drawing. I really had no idea how to draw the body. After a long attempt, I drew one. Now, how do I draw poses? But at least I move the head to one side this time and dare to make one hand hold a clutch lol.

OMG this must be the best thing I've discovered this year so far: DrawPlus . And now I want to quit my job and move to New York or Paris or Italy and be a painter! Although, maybe just by using a computer. It's only the most logical thing to do, you see. I find DrawPlus is user friendly, by the way (I am still using the starter edition), which is such a relief when you aspire to be an artist in a far, far away country using a laptop, a touchpad and shaky fingers.