RM5! I has it!

Cheap shit! Daiso has it!!

So popular dollar-store-concept outlet, Daiso, has been at the Curve for awhile and they've recently opened an outlet at 1 Utama. Everything in Daiso is RM5, so you can bet that I've spent a large chunk of my time (and a tiny chunk of money) going through the shelves, looking for something to buy because its RM5.

Surprisingly, I havent really found much that I would actually want to buy there. It's mostly decorative items and I have bought the odd porcelain lamb or two, but I did manage to try out some interesting things.

First, we have the mascara guard! A degree in rocket science may or may not help you figure out what it's for.


For those not endowed with hands that are as steady as a dentist with a drill, getting mascara on the upper and lower lids of the eye is a pretty common sight. Ok, so I've read about the business-card trick (using an old business card to protect the lids while putting mascara on), but being the diva that I am, I need a specific tool for such a menial task! I'll be demanding a 24K gold toothpick next.

Enter, the mascara guard! Ok, so it's just a plastic spoon-looking device with a cut-out centre made to fit perfectly over your eyeball. It protects the upper and lower lids (some adjustment needed if your miserable eyes do not fit Japanese super standards) from mascara stains.


Like so.

There's also a pretty pathetic comb at the handle bit. But I wouldnt bother.

Bonus point: Exact same thing spotted in Sasa for RM19! Win!

Another thing worth spending your RM5 on would be this little gem - the make up corrector.


I've been eyeing this odd looking pen thingy for awhile and finally decided that all those sleepless nights tossing and turning and dreaming about how it works must end!

I assumed it would probably work like a cover/concealor stick to cover up any accidental make up stains. So I was quite surprised to pop open the cap and find this:

What...

It looks and feels like a stick of wax! Look, if I needed a candle to correct my make up mistakes, I'd rob a baker, not spend RM5. But I shall hold up on judgement until said stick of wax has proven itself worthy.

ARE YOU WORTHY???????

I decided to try the make up corrector/candle stick in a pen on one of my more common make up mistakes that need correcting (my entire face is beyond helping) - mascara marks on my eyes.

So I swiped some mascara (waterproof) on the back of my hand..

*cue demo music*

Rubbed the make up corrector stick over it a few times and rubbed gently.

Wow, it sorta kinda works.

It did help get some of my mascara off, which I suppose is exactly what this little guy was made for. I wouldnt expect to use it to remove my entire face make up (on some nights, industrial strength toilet cleaner will do it), so for small mistakes like mascara/eyeliner smudges and lipstick, looks like it'll work!

A decent amount of it too.

Spot the irony in this post please.

And the Glee notebooks go to (in no particular order)..

Nursyahidah, Karin Fam (email address??), Quek Jinn Linn, Kaarishma and Faisal Iskandar! Congrats guys! Each of you told me something unique about what makes you the biggest Glee fan!

Look out for an email soon on how to collect your prizes! To the others, thank you very much for trying. There'll be another giveaway at another blog [link] real soon, so do keep trying! :)


His heart was filled with glee at the sight of his beloved puppy running through a rainbow.

Her face lit up with glee as the chainsaw went through.

There is such glee to be had in spending other people's money.

Hey look, Glee's on tv.

Grammatical error there? No, not really. Only the biggest thing to hit television since colour and sound.

It's GLEE!!


Based on the hilarious and pretty inspiring antics of a highschool glee club whose members are the most random bunch of people ever, this TV show is taking the world by storm! What makes it really unique is that each episode features songs (both familiar and unfamiliar) performed by the cast. And the song selections are fantastic because they really do add on to the storyline of each episode.

It's got everything you need for entertainment - the hot jock with hidden talents and a soft side, the emo Asian chick (what?), the very well-dressed and fashionable male diva, crazy teachers (who let them out??) and more! The first time I watched Glee, my mind was just confused. How come nobody thought of doing a musical TV series before? Definitely glad someone did!


*cough* Puck's mine *coughs*

The things that stick with us most from Glee would be the songs that are a great mix of current hits, classics and even oldies! Here are the tracks that are on "Glee: The Music, Volume 1":


1. Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey
2. Can’t Fight This Feeling – REO Speedwagon
3. Gold Digger – Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx
4. Take A Bow – Rihanna
5. Bust Your Windows – Jazmine Sullivan
6. Taking Chances – Platinum Weird
7. Alone – Heart
8. Maybe This Time – Liza Minnelli
9. Somebody To Love – Queen
10. Hate On Me – Jill Scott
11. No Air – Jordin Sparks with Chris Brown
12. You Keep Me Hangin’ On – The Supremes
13. Keep Holding On – Avril Lavigne
14. Bust A Move – Young MC
15. Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond
16. Dancing With Myself – Generation X
17. Defying Gravity – Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoworth and the cast of Wicked.

My personal faves from the list would be "Somebody To Love" and Gold Digger" for sure (oh mr. schuester, you can rap for me anytime)!! I will never listen to those songs the same way ever again. Glee has changed my ears forever! ;)

Now, there are fans of Glee. And there are Gleeks. So to all the Gleeks out there, here's a treat for you!

I have 5 exclusive Glee notebooks to give away courtesy of Sony Music Malaysia and Starworld! Now everytime you have to make a doodle or scribble a note, Glee will always be with you!



So how can you be one of the 5 awesome Gleeks to win a notebook? Just comment in this post (comment button is at the bottom) and tell me..


Too simple right? Tell me your funny, sad, happy, inspirational, anything stories about why you're the biggest Glee fan! Anything goes! Send your comments in by 3PM, 30th March 2010!

Need-to-knows:

• Along with your comment, please leave your full name, email address, Twitter and blog (if you have any). If I cant contact you, I cant tell you that you've won!
• There's no word limit. That's right. All you wordy folks, go crazy! But please make it good.
• Previous winners from Nigel's (Get A Cuppa) and Ceddy's (Good Boy Gone Bad) blogs are not entitled to take part again.
  
• Comments received after 3PM, 30th March 2010 will not be entertained. I will announce the 5 winners on 30th March 2010.
• Contest only open to Malaysian residents.
  

Now go Gleeks! Go!!

Gotta Love Every Episode! ;)

P.S. You really should follow Sony Music Malaysia on Twitter (@sonymusicmy) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/sonymusicmy) for being so generous. Who knows what else they'll be giving away?

P.P.S. If you did not manage to win here, fret not! There are more Glee notebooks floating around. Float on over to this spot on Thursday to see if you can grab one!

Old habits die hard.

Way back when in the good old days of college (which reminds me, I never got round to doing that college-recap thing), I used to be notoriously known for never having enough/any money on me.

My scrooge-o-meter was legendary. There were days when I would have just enough in my purse to take a train to and from college and come home with RM0. Ok, so it never occured to me to have some money with me for emergency purposes, but my logic train was fueled by "no money to spend = no money to spend" thoughts.

Ok, so I made it a point to try not to borrow money from friends (because borrowed money is money that has to be returned at some point haha), so I just scrimped and saved on whatever I could.

Tak malu but now abit malu confession: I used to go for lunch with a whole bunch of friends and not order anything (I never did have much of an appetite back then too, which really helped with saving dosh). I had no problems trying bits and pieces of my friend's foods and invariably, there would always be one or two people (usually the girls haha so useful) who could never finish their food. Dont need to mention what happens next then *ahem*

Of all my old habits, I wish my frugality wasnt the one that keeled over first.

We have a problem.

Its.. Beautiful!!

Now, when such issues arise, the logical thing to do would be to list down several possible solutions and weigh the pros and cons at hand. Many scientific methods have been considered, but as it is a Monday morning, science be damned.

A. Pick and toss - conduct a thorough research on colours that suit, colours that might suit and colours that really shouldnt be here at all. Eliminate colours that end up in final pile.

B. Storage solutions - what does a dragon do when his cave runs out of space for all his gold? Get another cave. Hollow out the body cavity of last night's dinner. Whatever works.

C. Problem? What problem? Man, this really worked up an appetite. I think I'll go shopping.

You know you've moved up in the world when you get brushes to do your work for you instead of your fingers.

I'm talking about make-up brushes here. Tee hee.

At the moment, I only have a few large make-up brushes (and tons of small ones from make-up sets) and expecting a few more to come soon (online shopping AGAIN). I think a bulk of other people's make-up brushes are for their eye make-up and since I wont be using those anytime soon, I needed a brush holder that could hold a decent amount of brushes without taking up too much real estate on my shelf.

I know the simplest solution would probably be to buy like a stationery holder or something and stick my brushes in. But if I'm going to have to look at something as ugly as that everyday, putting on make-up would become a terribly depressing experience.

Was browsing online reading some make-up/beauty blogs when I spotted a few of them showing off their take on a Sephora-inspired brush holder. It's the simplest idea ever, I cant believe I didnt think about it first. It's brilliant! And looks aesthetically pleasing too.


As you can see, the Sephora-inspired brush holder is basically any clear jar/container filled some white crystals which are probably vase-fillers/aquarium stones. Then you just stick your brushes in! The crystals are dense enough to hold the brushes upright, which prevents the brushes from touching one another during storage.

Wen Di and I were discussing online on alternatives to the white crystal stuff we see on all the Sephora-inspired brush holders, because it seems almost impossible to find it here in KL/Perth. It looks like those vase-fillers that are water-substitutes, but I dont want my brushes getting wet. Wen Di suggested marbles, but we reasoned that it would scratch our brush handles with the constant friction of taking the brushes out and putting back in.

Wen Di then disappeared for a few minutes from our chat and came back later with a report: it doesn't work with beanbag fillers either because the static causes the little beads to cling to the brushes everytime she pulled them out, causing a snowstorm of beans everywhere. Plus, the beanbag fillers were too light and not dense enough. The brushes would tip over onto one another.

So after coming up with our hypothesis and testing some variables, we decided that a logical conclusion would be to use pebbles/stones that I hoped was easily available in most gardening/pet supply stores.

And I managed to find everything I need! Woohoo! So here it is, my Sephora-inspired-bloggers-inspired make-up brush holder (versi Malaysia)!

First up, I bought a transparent container/jar.

Square glass vase from IKEA - RM9.90.

The height was perfect (I brought a brush along to test) and I didnt need too big a jar since I dont have that many brushes anyway.

Next up, a filler!

Decorative pebbles from The Pet Safari at Ikano Power Centre - RM8

I used up only half the bag btw. The picture above is the amount of pebbles I have left after taking what I needed, which is enough to fill up another vase. The pebbles are just the right size and they're nice and smooth! I hope they dont end up scratching my brushes. Was actually looking for those colourful plastic stones for vases, but they were twice the price of my pebbles =(

Once I've put aside a decent amount of pebbles, I just gave them a good rinse a few times and let them dry. I was too impatient and wanted to get it done in 1 night, so I used a hairdryer and towel-dried the pebbles =P

Almost there!!

So all that's left is to fill up my glass vase with the pebbles until it reached the level I wanted. In this case, perfection! The amount of pebbles I put aside filled the vase until exactly where I wanted it.

Sweet!!

Top view, for those lacking imagination.

Then I just stuck my brushes in. Magic!

Holds my brushes perfectly! The brush on the left is the longest brush I have, and I stuck it into the pebbles all the way in.

Might not look as classy as the proper Sephora-inspired brush holders with the transparent crystal fillers, but I think my version looks pretty darn zen! Will see if I'm in the mood to beautify it further with some stickers/ribbons around the vase. I guess you can pretty much fill the vase with whatever you want, or layer with different stones/colours.

This'll work great as a holder for anything nice and thin like stationery, cooking utensils, decorative items and more! Actually, I think it'd make a nice gift too. This counts as a "personal touch" right? ;)

Post-project update (19/03/2010): After a few days of using my awesome brush holder, I would like to point out that as the pebbles I used are slightly larger than the usual grain-ish vase fillers in other Sephora-inspired brush holders, it is slightly more difficult to insert thick-handled brushes. E.g. my fluffy powder and blusher brushes. There is abit of resistance inserting the brushes in because of the pebbles size. But thin-handled brushes like most eyeshadow and lip brushes have no problem going right in. The thicker ones require abit of pushing and/or twisting in a slight screwing motion to go all the way in. Nothing too tedious, but you might find it irritating if you're in a hurry. In which case you really shouldnt bother with makeup brushes and just use your damn fingers and a prayer or two.

It's time for another Wildly Erratic and Intensely Random Dreams (WEIRD) session! (changed it from Weird Ass Dreams. part 1 here)

For the past few nights or so, I've been having the weirdest dream that just keeps going on and on. It's not exactly a dream that repeats exactly the same way, but more of a dream that keeps having an ongoing story. So each dream is a continuation of the story in the previous one. It's like watching Glee in my head while I sleep.

Maybe its my subconscious making up for the fact that I dont get to watch too much TV these days, so it gives me a series in my head. Haha.

Anyhoo, on with the dream! It is the most random thing ever. My dream revolves around me being a recruit in some sort of army. I dont know what we're fighting against, but war is like a 9-5 job. We wake up, go fight some unknown enemy, and come back alive again to rest at night before going out the next day.

The army camp and battles take place in some sort of forest setting. Like those old Roman/Greek wars we see them set up camp in some wide grassy field with a deep dark forest just along the horizon (i blame Percy Jackson for this). There are campfires where food is cooked, everyone's wearing some sort of leather armour (seriously Percy!), but I cant exactly remember what weapons we used though. It felt quite Lord of the Rings-ish too.

In one of the series (chewah), someone on my team didnt quite like me and we had a small battle of our own with much swinging of weapons-I-cant-remember. Cant remember who won either. But what I do remember is feeling terrified as we lined up at the start of every day, picking up our weapons and preparing to go to war. That sinking feeling in my stomach of not knowing what was waiting for me out there. The panic as I try to make sure I take the right weapon with me. Seeing hundreds of fellow "soldiers" preparing for battle.

So, what does this all mean? Well first, I tried to find out the meaning of recurring dreams. I'm pretty sure a dream that keeps going on night after night must mean something.

Recurring dreams:

Most dreams contain messages that serve to teach you something about yourself. However, soon after you wake up to go about your daily routine, you tend to quickly forget what you dream about. The message in recurring dreams may be so important and/or powerful that it refuses to go away. The frequent repetition of such dreams forces you to pay attention and confront the dream. It is desperately trying to tell you something. Such dreams are often nightmarish or frightening in their content, which also helps you to take notice and pay attention to them.

Recurring dreams are quite common and are often triggered by a certain life situation or a problem that keeps coming back again and again. These dreams may recur daily, once a week, or once a month. Whatever the frequency, there is little variation in the dream content itself. Such dreams may be highlighting a personal weakness, fear, or your inability to cope with something in your life - past or present.

The repetitive patterns in your dream reveal some of the most valuable information about yourself. It may point to a conflict, situation or matter in your waking life that remains unresolved or unsettled. Some urgent underlying message in your unconscious is demanding to be understood.

[source]

Wow. So a recurring dream is my subconscious mind trying to shout out a message to me that seems pretty important enough for it to make the effort. Well, it certainly caught my attention by going on and on almost every night, that's for sure. And yes, I probably wouldnt take much notice of the dream if it were a nice skipping-in-daisy-fields type.

Well, now that I know that my dream is trying to reach out to me, let's see what it's trying to say.

Dreams about battles:

Battle signifies striving with difficulties, but a final victory over the same. If you are defeated in battle, it denotes that bad deals made by others will mar your prospects for good.

Dreaming about a war or a battle suggests that the dreamer has internal conflict. One part of personality or psyche may be battling with another for control and the dream reflects this internal war. Another reason for dreaming about war is that you may be faced with a situation that requires you to be aggressive or assertive and to come to terms with opposition. War veterans and others who have experienced war first hand may, from time to time, have such dreams based on memory and trauma.

A battle in your dreams suggests that you are overworked. You need to give yourself a break. There is a conflict between your rational thinking and your irrational impulses. Alternatively, it represents eroticism. You may be overly stimulated or you are trying to suppress your instinctual urges.

Conflict in your life, perhaps between rational thinking and your irrational impulses. Look to stressful situations to detremine what the battle is about.

[source 1, 2, 3, 4]

Conflict, huh. Right now? Damn right. I'll be chewing on this one for awhile.

Slightly unrelated note: The last time I remember having a recurring series dream was when I was pretty young. Maybe 12? But it was a damn cool dream series. It was about pirates and buried treasure. Imagination rocks.

Straight off the Pop gravy train is a glitter-covered, no-pants-wearing, 5-day-old bed hair girl with mad party ideas in her head that could be illegal in about 8 countries. It took me awhile to get her name right because symbols are oh so difficult to interpret when inserted into a name (unless you're !Xombile, then its no problem), but whatever you call her, her songs will definitely be stuck in your head for awhile (for better or worse).

Ke$ha started out small in Los Angeles, before she managed to catch a break after and sung background vocals in songs for Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. If you think she hasnt done anything before she suddenly burst onto the scene and invaded our radio space, she's actually written songs for artists like The Veronica's and Miley Cyrus (I'm thinking she flipped a coin when choosing them). But of course, her biggest break came when she sang the the female part in Flo Rida's hit "Right Round", for which she wasnt credited.


Well, she's got plenty of credit (cards hur hur) now with her debut album "Animal" debuting at number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts!


I've listened to the entire album a few times over already, and a word of warning to all future listeners: this is not an album to take too seriously and dissect for hidden metaphors/meaning of life. Its just plain pop fluff for dancing to, with much bopping of heads and jangling of gold bracelets.

Her first hit single "Tik Tok" should give us a rough idea of the type of songs Ke$ha churns out (please dont brush your teeth with a bottle of Jack. I'm sure it stings. or maybe that's good if you wake up feeling like P. Diddy). The entire album just spells P-A-R-T-Y! Its full of electro beats, which can get a little 80's sometimes, but everything in this album was made for dancing. She is forever covered in glitter, so she's really taking the whole shine-like-a-discoball thing to heart.

There are songs like "Blah Blah Blah" for telling a guy straight up about what exactly you want from him, and "Party At A Rich Dude's House" because, who hasnt? =P Even the "slower" songs on this album sound like a party, like "Hungover" which sounds kinda emotional and "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" which is pretty catchy, but you might experience a slight electro-overdose.


Almost all of the songs are about getting wasted, prowling the streets for some fun and getting lots of fun in return. Some of the songs that get stuck in my head are "Your Love Is My Drug" which gave me that grrrrrr feeling about boys and "Dinosaur" which is an absolutely hilarious song because it took me a minute to digest the lyrics were about being hit on by older men! Actually, my fave song would be "Take It Off" that samples a very familiar Arabian Nights-ish tune and is about a rather dodgy sounding club. By far the catchiest song on the album and one made for the clubs (she should release this as her next single).

Some of the songs are so-so like "Stephen" which sounds like a little-girl-turned-stalker song and "Blind" which is sounds alright, but you'll forget it right after that.


Check out this special video too!


One thing this album is guilty of is abuse of the autotune! I'm really not sure how Ke$ha sounds like in real life because almost every song has some part with roboKe$ha singing it. Or maybe its supposed to contribute to the whole electro-dance-pop feel of the album. If you get annoyed by songs with lyrics that dont exactly make for intelligent conversation, this album might kill you. Overall, its pretty fun to listen to if you need something to prep yourself before a party or three.

Just stick to mouthwash, please.

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  Hsu Jen
  jen2wyvern@hotmail.com
  
• @serpentinegal

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