theCollectiveUs

Oh right, and my juggling props have arrived. I’ve now got glow balls and an acrylic contact ball and several other random stuff that I will be letting off soon.

One of the glow balls seems a bit awry though. I’ll go get that checked out because it seems I might have to get it replaced.

This weekend, we’re going slacklining and kiting. Long weekends ftw!

How to Train Your Dragon is amazing. The story was meh – underdog boy gets emasculated by gung-ho pipsqueak girl; boy tries to warn disbelieving horde of danger in vain; disbelieving horde learns things the hard way; boy becomes hero, etc etc. There’s hardly any spoiler in the above statement because you KNOW you’d be expecting that even before you watch the show.

The show was captivating nonetheless and it’s really the gorgeous visuals that entices. I really like the anime colors (hence the choice of picture above) but above all, it’s the fur/hair rendering that sticks out (pun unintended) the most. I like how the Vikings’ hair and beard really look like they haven’t bathed in years and especially cool was how you can see the arm hairs on them. It’s a little disturbing even because while the characters bore a distinctly animated look, they had what came across as real life skin (ie. with hair).

At 1:38 long, it was a good length for an animated feature. Any longer and there’s really not much material left to play with.

Here’s a show I’ve been meaning to watch for the last few years. The show’s woven around a collection of Beatles songs and is pretty brilliant for its nudge-nudge-wink-wink moments which you’d probably only get if you are familiar with the Beatles. It’s a very whimsical tale which touches on a lot of the themes that the Fab Four sings about – love, peace, war, youth.

There’s apparently been very mixed reviews about the show although I personally don’t know anyone who’s watched it and doesn’t love the show. I don’t know if I love it though, I like the simplicity of the story and I like the music and the cleverness in putting together a decent plot but too often, it reminds me of a bunch of MTVs stuck together. It’s a great soundtrack to get though – I actually like how the songs have been covered.

Shows like this give me the urge to run away from home. I’m still not too sure why I’m watching so many movies these days. Very escapist.

I made some budget poi on Thursday and took them out for a spin, hoping to  get decent pictures. Apparently, light trails only work well in very dark places but you get the point I hope.

I’m starting to settle into a very chill Friday evening routine. I’m not sure how much I like it but I do appreciate the very zen atmosphere of the area. I brought my camera along and played with long exposures. It’s been very cloudy lately.

Have you ever received emails which you can’t quite read because you forgot your glasses for the day? But being responsible, you’d want to do your job and reply to it all the same? I sent this email today:

Hello,

I’m interested in this – Horseman Digital 77mm Circular Polarizer MC Filter and would like to find out a bit more information about it since I’ll be asking a friend to get it for me and can’t test it out for myself.
I want to use it with an ultra wide 10-20mm Sigma lens and was wondering if the filter will be slim enough to go on without obstructing the edges.

Thanks.

JH

I received this reply

Dear Jillian

Thanks for your interest. We have stock on Horseman Digital 77mm Circular Polarizer MC Filter right now, and the selling price is XXX

And, would you mind telling us which mount are you looking for on Sigma 10-20mm.
If you have any problem, please feel free to contact us.
THX

========

I’ve never considered it but Jillian is kind of a nice name.

Surf brand Nixon has very gorgeous, drool-worthy products. Their stuff is always minimalist with a very clean look which is right up my alley. I’ve been ogling the watches for the longest time and more recently, their headphones. Unfortunately, their top range, which I really like, is also quite pricey.

My Sennheiser Sports headphones died some weeks ago and I haven’t got around to replacing them mostly because I haven’t found a set of headphones that I like. The Sennheiser ones are really functional with great bass and very clear audio in general but are really overpriced for their lack of durability. I found out recently that local shops have started stocking Nixon headphones and went to test them out after reading pretty decent reviews.

I bought The Trooper headphones today for $90 – about $20 more than what they look like they’re worth, really.

My guess is that they’re named after Stormtroopers given the earpiece’s resemblance to the characters’ masks. The ear muffs are unconventionally made of soft rubber with a thin piece of foam inside, between the speaker and the cover. The set comes with a semi-hard carry case and I really like how the wire is a separate piece that can be unplugged from the headphones. The last few pairs of headphones I had were ruined when the connection in the wire snapped; detachable wires are definitely the way to go. These come with a 2 year warranty too so I won’t have to worry about their breaking anytime soon.

Sound-wise, I still like my Sennheisers better but these actually come pretty close. It might not be fair to compare earphones with on-ear headphones like these so I’m not unhappy about the sound quality. Another feature I like a lot is the volume control that’s around the right earpiece (it blends in with the design so you can’t see it). It’s very convenient! Little touches like this are what attracted me to this.

Praises aside, I am a bit cynical about the rubber covers. My ears feel kind of wet with perspiration after a while and I’m a bit worried that they’d yellow with time – they ARE rubber after all. We’ll see. You’ll hear from me if it screws up soon.

I never caught the show when it was out because I was underage then. Some years ago, I bought the DVD but never got around to watching it. I caught the play on Broadway 2 years ago but wasn’t that impressed and so was never motivated to watch the movie until now.

The play wasn’t particularly memorable. In fact there’s so much of it that I never quite understood, all the scenes started blurring into one and all that I took out of the show was that the shadows were spectacular and the score was very jazzy and loud. The movie surprisingly caught much of that atmosphere and reminded me of how great the music was. I particularly liked the scene where the girls described their crimes with a song and dance routine and I distinctly remembered the play featuring very good contrasts and color. That was perhaps my favorite part of the entire play/movie.

The script must have called for the part of Amos (Roxie’s husband) to have a certain type of voice because he sounded in the movie exactly like he did in the play I caught. I liked his character more in the play though – there was more character exploration there. I quite like the presentation of the movie – the sets are very theatrical and the setup feels more like a recorded play than a movie but you’re never quite disconnected from the story. For that reason, I found myself appreciating the play more as I watched the show and a lot of the parts now make sense. It probably isn’t rocket science to comprehend and perhaps it was lethargy then but I’d say that my impression of the play has improved.

Interesting.

My cousin is 9. I brought home Halo 3 but haven’t the time to start a game. He’s got plenty of time. Now I can’t start a new campaign because it’d erase his progress and I don’t want to be an ass like that.

So I play LEGO Indy 2.

WHY AM I STUCK PLAYING THE KIDDIE GAME WHILE THE KID PLAYS THE GROWN UP GAME???

Here’s a show I had meant to catch in Wellington in December mainly because the poster gave the impression that it’d be an intriguing movie and, because it’s directed by New Zealander Peter Jackson, the movie was pretty much in your face wherever you are. I’m happy to have caught the show here despite its Metacritic score being a very high and respectable 42 at the moment.

The story revolves around a 14 year old girl who’s raped and murdered. She gets stuck in the inbetween and comes to term slowly with what’s happening as her family and friends grieve.

I like how the story’s presented. There’s the inbetween, a childish fantastical afterlife seen through the eyes of the girl, and there’s the real world, a whitewashed suburban neighborhood. What impresses most though is lead actress – let me try spelling her name right here – Saoirse Rohan. She’s got such amazing blue eyes that can sparkle with wonder and amazement in one shot and look so guttingly sad in another. There’s a lot of depth to her face and she’s only 15 this year (and even younger when she shot the film). A review I read compared her to a young Jodie Foster and I will agree on her potential.

I’ve never read the book before but am compelled to do so because it sounds like it would have been an even more wrenching book than it is a movie.

I haven’t got much skills or talents in life but I’d like to think I use what little I have well. One of the few skills I have – skill because I’ve actively worked hard at refining it to a fault – is to write very pretty emails.

A long time ago, so long I’ve forgotten, I wrote some event organizer to enquire if unicycles are allowed for a cycling event. He decides to reply with a cookie cutter

Due to manpower constraint in marshals and the fact that we have mass roller skaters this year in the mass cycling event, I’m afraid that I can’t allow Unicycle to be in due to safety reason.

Here’s my reply.

Thanks for the reply.

My intention isn’t to be rude nor is it to put you on the spot but I’d like to understand what these safety concerns are and how unicycles are perceived to be any different from leisure bicycles or roller skates.

My original email was really to enquire if this could be an event on our calendars and not so much as an indication that there will be a mass of unicyclists taking part. Even if we were to turn up there’d probably be at most 5 or 6 of us.

I’ve been a unicyclist for 6 years, having done multiple international rides, the most recent, coming in 4th in my age group in the 43km Marathon at the International Unicycling Championships in New Zealand (http://www.uniconxv.co.nz/ if you want to check it out). I have been a cyclist for 3 weeks. I’m not too sure if you’d really want me to ride a bike

Anecdotes aside, I’d really like to find out your concerns to having unicyclists at the event.

Warm regards,

I like it so much I think I should save this as a template for future use in replies. Singapore, prejudice-free? Well.