Photoshop and Disturbing Dreams

So this is where fiddling with the Feather tool got me.

I like.
I was initially attempting to come up with some cool new collage concept so I could develop a 10R-sized collage of all my favourite people, i.e. the people I’d like to hang on my wall (HAHA that doesn’t sound so right, does it?). However, unsurprisingly, I ended up going in this direction again…pastel colours and pictures of me and alex and and floral prints.

What’s new?? I am sorely predictable when it comes to designing stuff in this vein- cards and etc.

I also did one up for the galpals,

And we look like the exterior of an ice-cream truck. Walls, to be precise. Okay, so my choice of colours isn’t exactly the best in the world, that I can gather. Oh but I just remembered that we were at Haagen-Dazs for this one so maybe it’s befitting of the circumstances eh.

Hmm. Both the things up there look kind of ORIENTAL, don’t they? All that splashes of red and Chinese-looking flowers just reeks of flamboyant dancers and prosperity.

I am very glad for Google nowadays, because I don’t have to painstakingly make the effort to look through Photoshop’s Help index. The best thing about searching for tutorials online is that you can actually use whatever layman term and probably still be able to come up with something useful. However I have to complain that some tutorials are about as impossible as Adobe’s own help function.

You know what I can’t stand about Wiki’s finance pages? One jargon leads to another, and another, and another, and in the end I forget what was the very first jargon I was looking up in the first place.

The same goes for these tutorials. What in the world is a ‘vignette’?? I have to read it about three times before I actually get what they’re saying.

Anyway, Photoshop is fun. It certainly requires a shorter concentration span in comparison to, say, MRS. DALLOWAY.

Anyone’s got any nifty Photoshop decorative tools that you might care to share?

P.S. Why does WordPress keep automatically eliminating extra line breaks?

FUNNY DREAMS

Sleep’s been awful lately, because I keep waking up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. Sometimes I dream and sometimes I don’t. When I do, I get plagued by the strangest dreams…

Here’s one

I dreamed that a number of people I know were seated at this long, wooden, antique table in a French cottage. There were two doors parallel to the length of the table - I was seated facing the doors. There was a rattan basket of fruits in the middle of the table, and one of my Citibank colleagues (Wai Shuen) sat right across to me, which means that the fruits were between us. We were right in the middle (i.e. think Jesus at the Last Supper). I don’t remember where everyone else was sitting.

I knew the cottage was on a hill- because outside the door was only a little bit of ground and all sky and clouds.

Then Friedemann got up to pour water from a transparent milk jug into his glass.

reali(SING) ∫riedemann says:
lol that is so random
reali(SING) ∫riedemann says:
what was i doing with your citibank colleagues?!
jeopardi(SING) hui lin says:
it wasn’t just you
jeopardi(SING) hui lin says:
it was a bunch of friends
jeopardi(SING) hui lin says:
but u got up to pour water……
jeopardi(SING) hui lin says:
how would i know why you were thirsty???

What the hell.

Here’s a second:

This was last night.

I dreamed that a Korean celebrity proposed to me.

That’s right. A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL.

It was quite funny, and frankly quite shameless, because apparently he was engaged to someone else before that…until he met me. Of all the hilarity in the world…the ‘ring’ was something made of pearls. But strangely it wasn’t exactly a ring, it was some sort of ornament, but in my dream I somehow knew that I was supposed to assume that this pearly ornament was my functional ‘ring’.

PEARLS. If I were to ever accept any wedding proposal from a celebrity, am I going to accept PEARLS?

Yes yes yes but the bigger question is: Did I accept the proposal?

I DID! I dreamed that I accepted it, because I wanted to show off to my friends. I was thinking, in my dream, and I’m serious about this, “Ha ha I can add him on Facebook and everyone will see it.”

Clearly, in my dreams, Facebook is a bigger deal than a grand wedding.

But a minute later, I said I wanted to call it off…because in my heart I knew I loved Alex and if I got married to this long-haired small-eyed pretty boy in a white suit, I wouldn’t be happy at all, and of course Alex would be devastated.

So I said no.

Then the celebrity was devastated.

Then I woke up.

****************

What an appalling dream. WHY DID HE HAVE TO BE A KOREAN STAR?

I don’t give a crap about the Korean entertainment scene!!!!! I don’t! The only person I know is Rain, and that is because I watched Full House, and that is because Song Hye Gyo is really very pretty, and that was in 2005 before I discovered the joy of House MD and Numb3rs and CSI:NY, the joy for which I would give up any sappy Korean drama in half a heartbeat.

OKAY?

SO WHY COULDN’T IT HAVE BEEN JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS? I WOULD HAVE SAID YES!

(Sorry Alex, you know I love you (: )

Here’s a third

Now this one was really very terrifying, and I felt somewhat haunted all day. It’s the oldest of all the three, so I can’t remember it in great detail. Nevertheless, I shall entertain you by trying.

I dreamed that I was in a wide, spacious courtyard surrounded by old whitestone buildings. However the colouration of the scene was very yellowish, something like how CSI Miami is on TV - everything was tinged with yellow, including the concrete garden paths, the grass, the flowers.

The flowers were everywhere. They were paper-thin, and printed- as though they were cut out from random pages of a fairy tale bedtime storybook and pasted onto the scene. And they were always moving- sort of curling inward and outward, constantly growing and shrinking, in all their absurd two-dimensional glory.

And then I saw Alex. Then one became two, two became three, and suddenly I realised that I was surrounded by Alex clones- all dressed the same, but all saying different things and making different gestures, things Alex would normally say and do, with Alex’s usual mannerisms- but engaging in what seemed like monologue. And they were all indifferent to me, like I wasn’t even there.

So I approached each Alex, desperately trying to ascertain which Alex was the actual person. I reached out and tried to get hold of each Alex’s arm. But each time my hand passed right through him, like he was just a hologram. A ghost. I remember going into deep despair, and feeling completely helpless.

Then suddenly one of the Alexes called my name. The real Alex at last! I remember being overcome with relief. Somehow, we started making our way out of the godforsaken courtyard. All was well.

And then…I tried to hold his arm.

And my hand passed right through.

Shit.

Right at that moment, it really felt like Alex was lost to me forever and he had never been anything but an illusion. And the worst thing was, I could see him right before my eyes. I could see SO MANY of him. Can you imagine the feeling?

Then I woke up feeling as desperate and scared as I did in the dream.

***************

Well there you have it. My sleep’s more exciting than my waking days.
Will mid-July come soon, please?

Zing, And It’s Over!

I don’t regret my stint at Citibank one bit. Time well-spent, indeed! Yet I don’t brood over the fact that it’s finished, either…once in a while it just so happens that there’s only so much time you should spend in one place, at one point in life, before it becomes less special, less educational, less of a treasured memory. And then it feels like the learning curve has flatlined somewhat.

My dept unit on the day of my farewell. There’s Karen, my OIC, behind me and slightly to my right. Hazlinda is the one in the light blue tudung, and well, she’s just someone I have a lot to thank for. In fact I can bluntly say that there is something I deeply appreciate about everyone in this picture, and that’s a huge part of the reason why this internship was much more than merely what I set out for (that is an opportunity for me to prep myself for the sad, sad reality of being a working adult).

Like I mentioned fuzzily somewhere before…I love how people can spring such surprises on you with a little, insignificant show of thoughtfulness. Beauty in simplicity! What I love best about people, is perhaps that there is so much power in a fleeting emotion, or thought, or act, or just a word, really-so much more than something you try your hardest and longest to render perfect!

The cake, on Karen, and the framed photograph from Linda.
(I think cake shops can really make a lot of money from setting up shop next to big firms)
(They should sell disposable plates and cutlery too)

la perfection. (: I love!

Flowers from Alex, specially delivered to me before noon. Did I ever mention how much I love this guy?
The rose is still fresh and happily a-blooming. That really says something us, huh Unfortunately I couldn’t find a classier-looking vase that wasn’t already in use so this big mug shall do.

I suddenly remembered that I have a penchant for vases. Because I was looking for a vase I bought four years ago on a school trip; this elegant, sepia transparent thing that I filled with pebbles I collected from exploring this cave-Gua Tempurung- up north of Perak, or somewhere in that region. I looked for it on the shoe-rack, which was where I placed it since then, but it wasn’t there, and I actually felt rather sad, because I really liked it, and suddenly noticing its absence kind of stung. I mean, it’s four years old, older than my favourite nephew! And contained bits and pieces (literally) of my first and only caving experience.

I wonder where it is. Well anyway, I had to resort to this ugly stubby porcelain thing. And I resolve to buy more vases.

I have a habit of collecting paper napkins from places I eat when I travel. I have a napkin from Durham (this sweet red thing with dull gold stars), from Budapest, from Edinburgh, and other places I can’t really remember. But of course I only keep the nice ones…who can tell the white ones apart? So maybe now I’ll switch to collecting small vases.

What a practical idea. Haha.

My apologies for veering off-track.

Here are my parents and I. They came down to KL on Sunday to get my stuff, plus let my mom shop around KL and Midvalley for a bit.
I think the last time I had a picture taken with only my parents was…10 years ago? No kidding.

And really, where are the good clothes for adult working women in their fifties these days? Are they all expected to dress young like so many do? It’s really creepy on MRTs in Singapore when sleek women in trendy outfits with trendy hairstyles spin around to reveal wrinkled, aging features, when from behind they look about twenty.

Sorry, I’m not being ageist or anything, but seriously. Dress your age. It’s creepy if you don’t. It’s always a good thing to age gracefully, rather than look as though you’re clinging on to every last bit of your youth by applying ten layers of concealer and bronzing powder.

Dressing young is one thing. Dressing old is another. 11-year-old kids strut around malls in smocked tubes and hot shorts and trendy bags, looking like they stole their older sisters’ stuff. Honestly! Smocked tubes on 11-year-olds? Why do they even need the smocked part, I don’t know…Smocked or not smocked, it ain’t gonna make a difference, baby, you’re still all straight at the sides. Jeez.

One thing I can say is, thank heavens for Metrojaya. Haha. Good going, you people who understand women.

I’m mean :S I quote Hugh Laurie, a ‘horrible, HOrrible person’.

I miss these people….and I’m probably seeing most of them on SATURDAYYY

Alright, off to install Graphmatica for my mom on the PC.

Some Videos I Like and Why

Winner of Marie Digby’s Video Contest - Peter Park.

I just find this so endearing (:

Hugh Laurie i.e. HOUSE with a BRITISH ACCENT on Friends!!

How come I’ve never seen this? I thought I saw every episode of Friends that ever existed from season 5 onwards.
Must have missed this one. Is this the one where they went to London and Monica came to look for Joey??
Is that pre or post Season 5??

Whatever I’m too lazy to find out but Hugh Laurie is HILARIOUS.
[*clamps on fingers* Oh no!!] HAHAHAHA

HOUSE Bloopers!

“Seriously, I speak English.” Haha!

If you can’t tell, I’m back in Malacca i.e. getting spoiled by too much leisure time once again. Please remind me to finish my books.

Speaking of books, I got Black Dogs by Ian McEwan! I can’t wait to get started…once I plough through Mrs. Dalloway. :S I’m failing miserably at trying.