a corporate-corporate video

by its unofficial definition, refers to the textbook approach towards the inception of a corporate video, mostly involving polished animation techniques and a baritone voiceover to package an otherwise unimpressive (and i do stretch the term here) video content, like the shiny, crinkling silver wrapping covering your five-cent candy. all fireworks but no creative substance; because really, if you strip everything down to its bare bones, it's really just a PowerPoint presentation of words and figures, slapped with the cosmetics of moving pictures, pretty animation, and a soothing soundtrack. there is nothing exciting, or forward-looking, or dynamic, or conceptual about it.

so with all this said, i hereby demand to know what in Neptune's sea is a corporate-corporate video concept.

this is a rant. thank you very much and have a nice day.

the Hollywood of video games

spanning two decades of evolution and all twelve titles. it's hard to imagine this all stems from one man's last-ditch attempt to produce a simple computer game.

through the swamp

by thom tenery.

i'm crossing my fingers and hoping they'll make this game someday.

why does this hint of inception

it looks to be a common practice to have the first official trailer do the adrenaline-pumping, and have the second one explain the sensory bombardment you've just experienced. this said, it still looks damn good.

the human spirit

loops

now this song is stuck in my head.

Jack Black and Will Ferrell "Get Off the Stage" Oscar song - watch more funny videos

a girl and the garden

went for a fashion shoot today involving a Finnish model and a Russian photographer, which, even in cosmopolitan Singapore, remains to be an elusive phenomenon. to be fair, the event turned out to be very much more exciting than what i have described, but i can barely keep my eyes open so here's a story for another day.

starring you as yourself

you're going about with your daily life, with your companionable headphones jammed over your head, and quite abruptly, the forces of life align themselves to present a significant yet equally unimportant phenomenon: your music player randomly selects a number that seems just right for the moment.

it could be a ridiculous happy song accounting the rarity of a cloudless azure sky above, or a heavy metal piece that echoes your exasperation from work; an unabashed love song as you spy your lover waving at you from across the road, or a power ballad at midnight as you rush out a deadline.

and whichever the case, if the world's one big truman's show, starring you as yourself, then what you've just heard, my dear, was a soundtrack of your life.

untitled

oh crap

this is dope.

now i'll never look at zombies in the same way again.

just saying

i like the cactus beer bottle

words fail me

that is actually the title of this picture, but i'm stealing it for this post because after a day of writing proposals i dun feel like writing the queen's good english. nor do i feel like writing coherently. does it make sense? i dun care.

anyway i meant to find a chinese-new-year-ish picture to put up but nothing's nice on deviantart for me to put here.

this is done by johnsu, who's one of my favourite artists on deviantart because his style is whimsical, his drawing kung-fu is powerful and he likes to add short story descriptions to his pictures. so here's the short description for this picture:

"Liquorish is a girl endowed with large hands capable of firing conservative encouragements at 400 wpm. she also has tiny feet which are sufficient for walking and running and maybe climbing stairs. despite the largeness of her hands, she is not very confident.

Yukiman is a large snow-like man who towers in the atmosphere and wears a tie, because he is serious. also as you can see, he is not very confident.

Doma is a dome with a slot going down the top of his dome. the slot can hold any number of thin objects, like cartridges or toast. his vague, ambiguous stare reflects a certain lack of confidence."

if you notice i credit pictures i take from deviantart because that is polite. internship has been really good; they seem pretty okay with me doing mainly just writing for now. i got bored enough to ask them if they need to take out the trash but they say that's alright too. and the writing is fun; the only problem i have is that sometimes i can't translate all the ideas in my head to the word document properly. it's like the words are too clumsy to wield properly.

maybe this is what a mood board is for. you know, should words fail us.

a happy dance

just because it's the weekends again!

it's a friday!

my train-ride playlist

i’m told that our lives aren’t worth much
they pass like an instant, like wilting roses
i’m told that time slipping by is a bastard
making its coat of our sorrows.
yet someone told me…

that you still loved me
someone told me…
that you still loved me.
well? could that be possible?

i’m told that fate makes fun of us
that it gives us nothing and promises everything
when happiness seems to be within our reach
we reach out and find ourselves like fools
yet someone told me…

that you still loved me
someone told me…
that you still loved me.
well? could that be possible?

well? could that be possible?

so who said that you still loved me?
i don’t remember any more, it was late at night
i can still hear the voice, but I can no longer see the face
“he loves you, it’s secret, don’t tell him I told you.”
you see, someone told me

that you still loved me
did someone really tell me?
that you still loved me
well, could that be possible?

i’m told that our lives aren’t worth much
passing in an instant, like wilting roses
i’m told that time slipping by is a bastard
making its coat of our sadnesses

that you still loved me
someone told me…
that you still loved me.
well? could that be possible?

coincidence

because that's all everything ever is.

so

if the chain is on your door, i understand.

cookie?

today, i met a friendly stranger who lives in the same block as me.

in a HDB block as old as mine (that's about 3-decades), situated in a less-than-prime area (apparently being in close proximity to an awesome 24-hour prata house doesn't count), you get, to loosely categorize, two kinds of neighbors: first-hand owners who have lived here almost half their lives, and temporary tenants who change hands faster than you can sneeze, the latter more often than not using their rooms as a furniture storage solution as they make their transition to a (presumably) nicer house somewhere. so when i step into the elevator, chances are i'll either meet a neighbor i've known my whole life, or a complete stranger who has little motivation to make acquaintances with.

oh, on that note, there are some old neighbors who have this permanent scowl etched on their faces, you know, the kind your parents threaten you with when you're small and you threw a tantrum about something you can't remember now, but that's another story altogether.

so anyway, i was walking home today when i realized this earphone-wearng dude was taking the same route as me, munching on Marie biscuits from a plastic bag, and as we stepped into the elevator he took out a biscuit and gave it to me.

what a funny way to say hi.

heck, but i'll take it

alright. so i've been delaying this blog post, and for reasons more compelled by self-imposed tradition than common sensibilities and procrastination. you see, for reasons that are no longer reasons because they cease to make sense to me, i am entrenched with the idea that the first blog post of the year has to stay fairly true to topics of new year resolutions, positivity and general feel-goodness. and i, for one, have yet to find anything good to say.

i read it somewhere that positivism runs in the human genetic code. in the time when our Darwinian ancestors were hunter-gatherers, this optimistic spark played a crucial crux in motivating them to greater efforts the next day after an unsuccessful day of hunting. call it a convenient justification, or Mother Nature's idea of a joke, or anything, and uh i think i am digressing.

anyway, there will be no new year resolutions this year (unless it can guiltlessly incorporate video games, comics, and free expression), nor will there be any reflections about the previous. i've decided that my life is about living, not a series of decade-long business plans to increase efficiency, or a report card to reflect upon past performance, good or bad.

carpe diem.

p.s. this is a demotivating poster. i find it more motivating than motivational ones.