誕生日おめでとう、嵐の釣り人。

On the day which I could have slept away (a half deliberate intent so as to not remember about it), these guys lured me out for dinner at Watami @ Ion, then desserts (thanks Justin for using your vouchers!) at Sun With Moon at Wheelock :) Thank you as always <3

(Photos courtesy of G.)

Erfa, Atikah, Weijie, Adeline, Tiffany, Yiliang, Max, Sheena, Yingle, Ps Raymond & Sis Lily, Ps Wilson, Ron, Abigail, Ray, Hongbei, Eugene, Kar Kin, Jonathan, Raymond, CJ, Sharon, Bochun, Hazimah, Najib, Amanda, Alvin, Tommy, Carmen, Yanjie, Amanda Lee, Ruth, Sherrilynn, Gifford, Faith, Jolene Fu, Siitee, Tse Yun, Jonny, Samantha, Crys, Shane, Amelia, Atika, Mattea, Lijia, Shermaine, Tan Chun <3

Meetup with the PL Clique: 27 Jan | 313@Somerset, Ion

A belated/early birthday meetup for Sara and I with Claudyne, Cathleen and Mindy. To think the last time we actually had a gathering like this was almost exactly a year ago?! Everyone’s changed – drastic or not – within the span of 12 months; and that short but sweet outing had made me realise how comfortable we could be around one another still. Counting the years of friendship – 8 to be exact? – even when we don’t meet that often, in the end there’s always something that clicks. Thank you guys for the great afternoon, the lovely messsages on the birthday card as well as the sketchbook. <3

Birthday Surprise: 29 Jan, home

Grace, Hajar, Charissa, Nural, Justin Tan, Azmi, Joshua, Daniel, Justin Lee — GAWD one moment I panicked because Azmi’s car has arrived to drive us for supper but I wasn’t done with make up, then I had to open the door for Grace (because she absolutely needed the washroom, uh), the next moment had me thinking that some freaky neighbours were lurking at the lift lobby, THEN A FULL FLEDGED ATTACK, at 2400!!! OMG it took half a second to snap back to reality :O and gawk at the birthday cake and heart-shaped balloon and the horde of ‘Bintan’ people trooping into the living room. That was followed by the real supper at simpang Bedok lol.

It’s….. the best birthday surprise ever, and I suspect nothing in the near future will surpass that. Aww XD

High tea: 30 Jan | The Rose Veranda @ Shangri-La Hotel, CQ Brewerks

I was late because it rained and there had been a jam at Chinatown where I collected the cupcakes. Speaking of which, Onicupcakes, was a disappointment; out of 3 flavours only the nutella one tasted good, while I had been misled to think the cupcakes were actually quite pretty on their website? One paltry blob of cream on a flat cupcake with a plain looking holder and that’s all? Hajar can do way better. Simply put: I will pay Hajar 70 freaking dollars for not just 15, but many more pretty cupcakes the next time.

On the other hand, we had a whale of a time (literally stuffing food in our faces, more like) having high tea at The Rose Veranda *which I misspelled as Verdana, oh designer blues* with the same people: Grace, Hajar, Charissa, Nural, Justin Tan, Azmi, Joshua, Daniel, minus Justin Lee plus Mayfen. Nural and I sneaked up on the rest at the hotel entrance because they hadn’t seen us ^^ And I received balloons again – this time in a bunch; huge and pink and red and imprinted with hearts – exactly matching my dress <3 THANK YOU LOVELIES <3 The restaurant had a real pleasant ambience and an awesome spread not including the more awesome dessert bar.

Afterwards, we managed through the evening traffic and headed to Clark Quay, sat at Brewerks and were treated to a visual feast of GORGEOUS FIREWORKS!!! Stunning *___* I knowwwwwww you guys totally planned that too.. XD

Meetup with the cousins: 31 Jan | PS Hot Tomato, lift lobby *lol*

Our gatherings have never been full of over-the-top parties, expensive meals or remotely materialistic, yet my younger cousins garner the most respect and awe from me, because they are the ones who understand what quality time is. We relished and reminised fondly our past as well as discussed about our futures over dinner and dessert. Besides the familiar topics, there’s always something more profound in their conversations and meaningful purposes I find attached to their thoughts. They share, they teach, and I gladly learn. One of the simpler discussions during that night was, “Have you found your goal in life?”, to which I didn’t have a concrete answer. The time for change will come, surely.

But what I wanted to be thankful for was the company and the knowledge that these awesome people have grown up to be positive influences. And that they’ve been in my life for about as long as the 21 years I’ve lived. <3 HEARTS TO YOU ALL <3

お誕生日おめでとう大野智！

大ちゃん！おっさん！智くん！とし！リーダ！釣りバカ！
いつも大ちゃんはアーティストとしてすごいと思うよ。だからフアンアートを描いて、大ちゃんにあげたいんだ。
テームは『FREESTYLE』のフィギュアだ。でも見て見て、その描いたフィギュアの顔は大ちゃんだよーーー！
さすがかわいいな〜　大ちゃん、今日お誕生日をよく祝してくださいね！Enjoy！

Happy 29th Birthday to Ohno Satoshi

the incredibly cute artist ^^ Ohchan – and everything about him – never fail to surprise. Oldest in Arashi yet blessed with a *grumpy* baby face; he’s such an enigma. I love the way he dances so perfectly, sings with a beautiful and distinct voice, makes all sorts of expressions that tugs at heartstrings, spaces out way too often and has a vocabulary limited to one word when made to comment on food, and the fact that his brain is filled with awesomely weird ideas. <3

“Ehhhhhh—-?”…
Any idea why he’s making that awfully funny face? Comment and share your thoughts!
何でリーダがそのおかしい顔をしているの？面白いアイデアをここでコメントしてください〜

The digital painting took 2 days, based on Ochan’s figurine idea from his FREESTYLE art exhibition series. What’s unlike his personal image is that he seems to have been strongly influenced by the African-American culture and music, which can be seen throughout his entire collection of artwork. Looking through his artbook, inspiration hit and at the spur of a moment, I turned Ohno into one of his figurines.

I’ve actually a more elaborate plan for this thing 8D Let’s just wait and see how it will turn out.

Docomo Prime Series – 2009 Summer

Dimension：108mm x 50mm x 17.5mm
Weight：125g
Continuous Talking time：3 hrs 10 mins
Continuous Standby time：620 hrs
Main Monitor：3.1 inches Full WVGA (480 x 854)，26,214,400,000 colors
External Monitor：2.0 inches (240 x 427)，262,144 colors
Main Camera：8.1 MegaPix CMOS，AF Ready，Max ISO 12800
Max photos Size：8M
Max video Size：640 x 480，30 FPS
External memory：up to 16GB microSDHC
(image © NTT Docomo | info from here)

Japanese handphones are simply too pricey pretty. ESPECIALLY when they come in glistering white. AND double display screens. PLUS two-way view and keypad zomg.

Drawn on the bus on my way home from school, and touched up when I got home. Don’t ask me how I did it =S My sketches turn out very differently under different conditions. Am trying to get the hang of sketching freely because it forces my eyes to find contours and shadows quickly.

Anyways. ?????I somehow got stuck with the busy January schedule I didn’t manage to ‘blog’ until right now. Another quickie sketch of Nino-chan when he was little because I was wasting time the school library, bored and without internet connection.

So, Nino’s big big news indeed shocked all the fans; they’re to release a SINGLE (yeah we all heard the preview already. Step and Go, interesting…). *kills Nino* But the real big news should actually be Ohno Satoshi holding his very first art exhibition from 21-29 Febuary at Omotesando Hills, Tokyo. SQUEEEE, everyone’s dying to go. And dying to grab hold of this, which is sadly out of stock currently. Ohno’s art book.

—

est ; says:
OHNO’s EXHIBITION!!!
and we can’t see it omg
ka;fakjsdflaksjdfl;kasjdfkajslkfasj
? Adel says:
DIES DIES DIESSSSSSSSSSSSS
maybe we cld go to japan tgt for a holiday and then see it
hahahah
est ; says:
its in feb
21 i think
? Adel says:
OMOTESANDO HILLLZZZZZZZZZ
OMG DIESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
omgomg kill meeeeeeee
—
? Adel says:
i feel like hopping on a plane now
est ; says:
hahahah let’s go!!
? Adel says:
hahahaha!
rob a bank!

—

Here’s my msn nick 1 or 2 weeks back:
“LET’S ROB THE BANK, FLY TO JAPAN AND SEE OHCHAN’S ART EXHIBITION! like now.”

And here’s Erfa’s:
“Ok Ovie!!! Let’s DO IT!!! *goes arms self*”

—

I could have been there for Ohno’s exhibition! Once in 10000 years my dad takes leave.. well he told me he’s gonna take leave from 3-7 March and asked if we all wanted to go to Japan. OMG by all means, even if there’s Project3 going on, I’ll go, but. I’ll miss the exhibition by 3 days?! Right, I’m so serious about my nick.

Last last Saturday. Yiliang invited me to volunteer for the reading programme organised by YMCA, so I went in the morning, expecting nothing of what I had actually experienced. Lots of girls, yes and hardly any guys, of our age went together to the school of the beneficiaries, somewhere near Meridian JC. Oh yeah, it was good seeing Yiliang again, I could hardly remember how he looked like a couple of years ago =P Most, if not all of the beneficiaries are in some way or another physically disabled and they have problems speaking or understanding. It was all very strange, and I found myself quite lost, until I made friends with a few of the volunteers. The reading programme actually involves us splitting into groups along with the beneficiaries, interacting with them and helping them learn by doing things like scrapbooking, doing worksheets and stuff. The level of activities conducted depend on their learning abilities, hence the purpose of grouping them. I was only beginning to learn how to befriend these people. And how to be a friend…

We all parted at YMCA, I took a short walk around PS before travelling to school for the TP Open House ’08. Meeting with Claud and Cathleen, yummy! Claudy came back from Korea recently and she brought stuff for us. Looking at the both of them and how tremendously they have changed (for the bettaaaaar and prettier) over the years, I realise I’m way behind them in terms of dress sense and uhh everything else basically. *depressing*

We all toured around Design, introducing the courses and design works to them. The feeling wasn’t as great as last year’s open house, probably because I was involved then. Got them to see our IMD kiosk games at the Hereafter lab (why was the location so isolated?).. Cathleen hadn’t got a chance to play it properly because my game screwed up! BIG TIME! Fonts, alignment, everything. It was undescribably…. URGH.

Amid the busy block, I’m glad I found time for art (whether crappy or not), and for a movie with Qinghui and Hajar. Qinghui was telling us how excited she was for American Gangster, so we suddenly decided to catch it at TM one evening after our group meeting for INWA. Exciting!!!!! Not. The first half went by really slowly, it was not until the latter half that the pace picked up and it ended rather well. Oh mine, now I can’t even recall any names; only gunfights, city streets of the 60s, all sorts of gangsters, blue magic, Vietnamese drug dealers, nude women packing drugs in an underground drug ‘factory’ =.= and the jail sentence: 70 to 15. Haha.

Anyways. Yesterday I was reading the horror movie reviews at mandiapple (favourite!) and got around to watching 9 Souls, from the same director of Blue Spring. I still like Ryuhei films =) or rather, IN films.. 9 Souls, although highly recommended, I found it hard to watch. Took about one whole day with two breaks in between to finish the film on croll. It might take a few viewings to understand the characters more, and to figure some of the symbolism portrayed in this non-mainstream movie. One last art for the day: young Ryuhei Matsuda in black ink. I attempted lineart and manga style, using just enough lines to show his features (hair is not counted) without having too many stray pen strokes. When I see this I always relate it to robots.. but after brainstorming for so long I gave up trying to incorporate robot and machine parts into this. Don’t know how to draw leh! Here’s Ryuhei for you, the stoned, robotic stare.