all I want for Christmas

...are baked goods. i don't know why but I just really, really do.

these are super awesome cool though. I'm almost 29 and I have one more year before its really unsettling for a 30-year-old to be going 'haiya' with her cookies and decaf flat white.



ninjabread men cookie cutters will make awesome holiday treats - technabob

NaNoWriMo

No, I will not be posting 50,000 words here on this blog.

But I am publicly announcing my intention to complete this endeavor as to cross it off my bucket list.

Thank you for your indulgence.

Nooooo!

I *wanted* a billboard! I wanted a billboard looong before you even had Ivan! And my buses! My awesome tastefully done buses! Fecking NAG- what do you even know about advertising? Your buntings have no information hierarchy whatsoever and they suck.

urgh- i am such a sore loser.

at least i had a train before any of you did. except MAS, of course, but they don't count.

DAMMIT!

chasing the dream

i want to put this down for posterity.

today is the day i finally learn that is stupidly easy to make a lot of money very quickly but it takes hard bloody work and a good team.

i'm always so encouraging (mostly) towards everyone's success, good fortune and brainwaves and it feels good to have someone being so positive about my own ideas. i really appreciate having people more driven than myself recognize and chase down my input and use it to form something tangible and useful for themselves. its a form of validation for me and a tiny spark of confidence in my own competence that i keep and will remember for a long time.

this has to work because otherwise, i will be writing another "life is cr*p" entry in 6 months time. keep watching.

thanks, mel.

Lolz- Drabble Generator

An Ethereal Day To Float
by Grac, courtesy of the Drabble-matic

Kieran stepped easily out into the classy sunshine, and admired Anna's shoulder. "Ah," he sighed, "That's a mysterious sight."

Anna climbed off the billboard and walked quickly across the grass to greet her lover. Kieran patted Anna on the feet and then tried to float her nonsensically, but without success.

"That's all right," Anna said. "We can try again later."

"I'm just not fabulous," Kieran. "Not as fabulous as the time we floated behind the moon."

Anna nodded carelessly. "We were redeeming back in those days."

"Our necks were younger, and we had a lot more fun with them," Kieran said. "Everything seems shiny and asinine when you're young."

"Of course," Anna said. "But now we're provocative, we can still have fun. If we go about it progressively."

"Progressively?" Kieran said . "But how?"

"With this," Anna said and held out a contrary foil. "Just take that with some water and in half an hour, you'll be ready to float."

Kieran swallowed the foil at once and sure enough, in half an hour, they were able to float progressively. They floated like a beautiful membrane made of a thousand points of light. Three times.

And then the neighbour told them to get off his lawn.

----
It's scary how it looks like something I'd write on crack. Lots of work and thinking up of adjectives, but FUN!

growing up is hard work

growing up (not old, mind you) sucks.

i never thought i could be made any more cynical than i already was, pre-current-job, but there you go.

here is a list of the things I know nothing about: house loans, overdrafts, debts, EPF beneficiaries, wills, burying people (twice), legal stuff, bills, MRTA, estates, auctions, developer prices etc. you would think that after two years, i would know- but i've managed to ignore it, in hopes that it will go away. it hasn't, but it's getting easier. to ignore, that is.

however, i don't think burying people made me cynical and jaded, contrary to popular belief. i suspect its my job.

my job is wonderful. i love the people i work with (four of them, at least). i love how when i had my writer's block going on for a year, they took over all the writing altogether and let me do my own thing.

boss: {in her cubicle} grac, bla bla buzz buzz deadline bla bla
grac: ... {typing an email}

TEN MINUTES LATER

grac: ... {deleting furiously after three whole sentences}
boss: bla bla artist bla
grac: {types in 'aesthetic in the mystical' and pauses} um... can i have your eyes for a minute?
boss: {moving around} bla bla invoices, grac
grac: ... {deletes furiously and reparses the sentence. types 'mysticism and astrology' instead}

FIVE MINUTES LATER

boss: {at grac's cubicle} okay, what?
grac: i'm doing this thing for the blurb thing
boss: ... {reads over shoulder}
grac: ... {still typing and reparsing sentences}
boss: you know what? i'll write this- you scoot over and i'll finish in two minutes
grac: {angry, scoots}
boss: {types}

TWO MINUTES LATER

grac: {sends that email off}

my writing muscles have atrophied and i take an hour to write a short blurb that wouldn't have taken me 5 minutes before. it was so easy to palm off all the writing work for so long, it's starting to be very bad for me.

anyway, i love how working for a big company allows me the experience of a big budget but yet working for a small operating unit means i get to learn to be accountable on what and who i spend it on. particularly the who. i've never been so pro-who in my life, its unbelievable.

i bought a train (4 trains, actually). and this fulfils one of my list of 'things to-buy'. happy day. however, we had nothing to put on/in it. that was a painful experience of futility and hopelessness. nevertheless, it looks beautiful now. happy day.

Okay. We.

we bought four trains. not me.

it is wonderful to be able to strategize and create campaigns. to come up with catchy taglines and copy and clever wordplay and visuals before figuring out what we have to buy to put this award-winning ad out there. this is kinda like my mother getting excited over a new product in our dinnerware series- eyes wide, happily holding a bowl aloft: "what do you think we can eat in *these*??"

i am glad i am not my boss.

boss: howc'm you get confused everytime? you know there's a difference between a PO and a PR.
grac: ...
boss: {waits expectantly}
grac: due process is a big v*gina

if i'm feeling down, walking through the gallery cheers me up and calms me down everytime. i love brisk walking down the corridors to check up on my favorite pieces. the event launches are fun. you get to be out of the office and in the gallery all day long. i love meeting journalists and art lovers.

primadonna artists, however, can be such big v*ginas. worse still, their *entourage* and plus-ones. eurgh.

still- i love my job. i'm glad i'm here and nobody can tell me otherwise.

growing old is nice. i just don't like growing up.

Two years later

...and I'm back in Singapore. For a visit, of course.


I've been bitten by the writing bug again, lately and needed to move past my block.



There.