more carouhell

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I’m back with another Carouhell Carousell story.

So, I was browsing the beauty products section and chanced upon this.

  

WAH! Like that also can sell for $3! I’ve seen people sell very lightly used palettes with hardly a dent at that price and this joker is selling her more-than-half-used eyeshadow/blusher palettes at $2-$3. This is absolutely ridiculous! Don’t even talk about the price, there’s hardly anything left to be used!

I told Sis about it and she pointed out something I didn’t even consider. It’s really unhygienic to sell used cosmetics. Even if the seller does not include the original applicator, just imagine how many times her applicator has swept across the palette. And what if she has say…bad acne? Erm…I don’t even want to think about it.

Reported her to the Carousell admin immediately.

So please, if you wish to purchase cheap cosmetics off other people, try to purchase brand new ones and always check with the seller on the expiry date. Yes, cosmetics do have expiry dates!

ktv song list

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I recently satisfied my ktv craving when I met up with my ex-colleagues. Joel (hotpot) is back from his studies in UK!

Well, almost. Because I couldn’t find some of the songs I wanted to sing. I don’t really keep up with Chinese songs these days so I mostly sing Japanese songs at ktv.

Here’s my ideal ktv (Japanese) song list:

  • YUI – Good-bye days
  • YUI – fight
  • ZONE – secret base 〜君がくれたもの〜
  • NO NAME – この涙を君に捧ぐ
  • AAA – a piece of my word
  • Perfume – My Color
  • 浜崎あゆみ – Who…
  • OLIVIA inspi’ REIRA (TRAPNEST) – A Little Pain

If I really had to, I’ll add these in too:

  • AKB48 – 桜の木になろう
  • NEWS – 星をめざして
  • NEWS – ずっと
  • 宇多田 ヒカル – First Love
  • モーニング娘。- ふるさと
  • Berryz 工房 – ジリリ キテル

Looks like I have quite a list right? Except…the usual popular ktv hangouts don’t have most of these in their systems. Can’t blame them. Not many people sing Japanese songs and some of these are not main singles…more like B-sides. Of course, my list is not that long either compared to some other people, but that’s because I can’t read Japanese fast enough and can only manage simple and slower-paced songs. As said before, I don’t quite like relying on romanji. Used to do that, but it’s not good if you want to practice your Japanese reading skills. I rely a bit on memory from singing the song over and over again too. Yup, jpopasia is my good friend as they list the actual Japanese lyrics to songs and not just the romanji lyrics.

I probably could throw in a few more songs but I’ll either fumble through the lyrics or sound really bad. Sis and I have agreed that there are songs you like but you just can’t sing. That’s why if you’re taking part in a singing competition, you don’t just choose songs you like, you gotta choose songs you like that suit your singing style and pitch. Which is partly why I also end up singing the same Chinese songs because I know I sound good.

AyuReady?

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For years I have been dreaming of seeing Ayumi Hamasaki live in concert and I finally got my wish fulfilled. The last time she came to Singapore to perform was way back in 2002 during the MTV Asia Awards. I could only watch her from afar (on the red carpet) then as I did not have a ticket to the awards/performance. And now, on 18 October 2014, she performed as the top artiste for a-nation Singapore Premium Showcase.

It was a bit of a rush as I attended Jo’s wedding lunch just before the concert, but I reached the concert venue right on the dot. There were some fringe activities like an express manicure and hairstyling counter. Really wanted to do my hair for the specially printed ribbon, but there was no time for that. 🙁 Thank God, See Nga was there earlier to help me get the uchiwa. The rest of the concert goods were either too blah or too expensive.

The order of acts (with my comments for each) is as follows:

  1. Stella Seah
    A Singaporean newbie in the entertainment scene. Sang three songs including the theme song for Channel 8 drama, Missy 先生。She was the opening act for the concert.
  2. Wagakki Band
    Was rather impressed by them. The concept for the band is to mix Japanese traditional instruments and Western rock band instruments. Rather good blend of ‘East meets West’.
  3. Aaron Yan
    After Fahrenheit ceased to exist, Aaron Yan can arguably be the only member who is still going strong in the entertainment industry. I think Fahrenheit can be said to be the last Taiwan boyband I was crazy over. But somehow, I think after they went their separate ways, each member kind of changed..for the worse? I’m not really sure whether they did something to their faces, but Jiro Wang and Aaron Yan kind of look different. Also, Aaron Yan adopted this casanova cool guy image which irked me a little. He was known for his cute boyish looks in Fahrenheit so it was rather uncomfortable seeing him being all bad boy. Well, it could all be marketing, but I really don’t click with this image of his. Feels fake. *shrugs*
  4. Girls Award Fashion Show
    Very short fashion showcase for Lowry’s Farm. Famous model, Lena Fujii was the highlight of it. She was all bright and smiley…and also the only model who threw more than just the souvenir towel. She threw her hat and coat to the crowd too. Rather funny because a guy caught her coat. Wonder what would he do with it? Was a little surprised to see that she’s not that tall even as a model. Anyway, I would have taken more notice if they were modeling for Liz Lisa or Dip Drops (more cute girly clothing). Lowry’s Farm is alright but their clothing is not really something I would go for.
  5. Sonar Pocket
    Not too familiar with this band but they performed a fun song titled 「ソナポケ☆DISCO」。The song is now stuck in my head.
  6. GENERATIONS from EXILE TRIBE
    Not too familiar with this dance/vocal group too. Haha, EXILE/EXILE TRIBE is too complicated. Too many members here and there. In short, EXILE is one group. GENERATIONS is another. And they are all under the family unit, EXILE TRIBE.
  7. M-Flo
    This was one of the two artistes I really wanted to see. Omg. M-Flo really rocked the house (or at least for the couple of rows at the front). They even did a small excerpt of my favourite song, Miss You. I was a little annoyed by the audience at this point. I kept seeing Verbal whisper something to Taku, and he was seen to be trying really hard to get the audience all high. I was a little puzzled and turned round. That’s when I saw a few rows of people just sitting in their seats, looking all bored. Hell, I know that most were there for Ayu, but what’s wrong with these people? These artistes are performing their best on stage, couldn’t you have the courtesy to at least cheer for them and look interested? Thought these people were plain rude.
  8. Ayumi Hamasaki
    What can I say? It was so obvious that everyone was there for her. Unlike the other artistes who only sang three to four songs, she sang double that number. And since she was the final act, she also got to perform the encore. Haha…I jokingly said to See Nga that it felt like it was her solo concert. The diva is known for her showy concerts and of course she did not stop short of bringing the same experience to this concert. I was so happy to see her perform, but more than that, I was happy to see her dancers, backup singers and band members especially guitarist Yoshi and bassist Enrique. These two have been with her since yonks ago.

    Her setlist:
    – Step you
    – XOXO
    – A Song for XX
    – Memorial Address
    – Love song
    – Lelio
    – Surreal~Evolution~Surreal mix
    – You & Me
    – How beautiful you are
    – Boys & Girls (encore song)

    She did not follow her setlist for the Japan a-nation concert. Would have preferred that setlist as it had more older songs which I’m more familiar with. I used to follow her music quite closely but sort of dropped off after the My Story album. Had to concentrate on studies then. Anyway, I’m glad that she sang Evolution, which is my favourite Ayu song.

    Gerald and I had a conversation about her just before the concert. He said that Ayu tend to go off-key in her recent concerts. (Gerald is a big Ayu fan who attends her concerts elsewhere in the world.) I told him that I would rather she go off-key than lip synch. I feel that for an artiste to sing live rather than lip synch is akin to sincerely wanting to connect with fans. Nobody is perfect, so even if the artiste goes off-key a little, it’s ok. Besides, we all know that Ayu has lost her hearing in one ear due to a health condition so it’s pretty awesome for her to sing live. We talked about her voice quality. It has changed significantly from being all shrill to a lower pitch. Some say it’s because of her health condition, I also think it’s just the maturing of her singing style as she ages. We also discussed the style of her songs. We agreed that we disliked her recent disco style craze for songs like XOXO and Lelio. In fact, Ayu reminded me of Madonna when she donned the leotard and danced around the pole. Erm…I kinda think it’s disgusting to try to act all sexy when you’re not a sweet young thing anymore. Not that I don’t think Ayu is fabulous and pretty, but I must say that she has matured a lot and therefore should be moving away from all the sexy/erotic dance moves. Oh well, that’s just my opinion.

Overall, I was impressed by all the artistes. They made an effort to speak English or Mandarin to connect with us, Singaporean fans.

As for the concert goods, didn’t find the stuff too fantastic so I only got myself the a-nation uchiwa which doubles up as a light stick. We only found out the next day that a light stick was included in the “goodie” bag that everyone had. Haha. I must say that I’m wow-ed by the light sticks of today. Battery operated so you can keep using it until it just conks out. So much more convenient than the disposable neon ones that last only for a day. The silver streamer is from the confetti pop at the end of the concert. It has the concert branding printed on it. So cool.

Besides the light stick in the goodie bag, there were a few flyers from the various sponsors. What caught my eye was this:

Omg! Ayu is following the footsteps of Perfume and having a global fanclub! So going to join it!

Now that I’ve seen Ayu live in concert, I would very much hope for AAA to come to Singapore. (It just might happen!)

cheapskates and more

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If you haven’t seen this yet, you have to. It’s about Carouhell Carousell, a mobile app where Singaporeans can easily sell their stuff. It started off as a nifty idea, at least that’s what I thought so. Tired of uploading pictures to my computer, this app provided the ease to just click, snap and post whatever I needed to sell off, all with my mobile phone. Except, now it has become “Singapore’s #1 breeding ground for inarticulate cheapos”. I totally agree with that statement. In fact, it’s not only a breeding ground for cheapskates, there are also people with really bad manners hanging around.

First, let me address the cheapskate bit. I mainly put up brand new clothing — ones that unfortunately don’t fit me well — to sell. I was incredibly happy when I got a couple of “likes”. After all, I thought the “like” feature was bookmarking items you might consider purchasing. I was wrong. Perhaps the “like” button took on a different meaning, one that increased the visibility of a user. There is even a thing called “like for likes” in Carousell. (Imagine that!) So what you do is go around randomly liking people’s stuff and they’ll like your stuff back. I kinda understand the rationale behind this but I don’t think I really like this idea. I don’t want to bookmark a ton of useless items! Oh but I digressed. The way I priced my items was so I could get back more or less what I paid for for them. Nope. Not gonna happen. Nobody was buying my stuff. So I lowered the prices by a quarter. Some got sold off, but still not many. Then I noticed the trend. Things that are priced between $1-$15 get sold off pretty fast. Well, that price range is ok for some things, but some dresses are worth way more than that! So there you have it, Carousell, the breeding ground for cheapskates.

Another blogger’s opinion on the matter is that items should be priced low (even if they are brand new) as you’re trying to get rid of them fast. I don’t quite agree to that view. Yes, some items even if brand new can be priced low based on their quality. Gonna digress here…some blogshops do sell clothing at $25-$40 a piece when the quality is not that great. But, how about better quality items like a gown for example? You don’t expect me to price a gown at $8-$10 right? It’s insane! Besides, some bloggers do get sponsored items so they are already profiting from the sale. Unfortunately, I am not some famous blogger so I don’t get sponsored items always. Which also means that I’m already selling my brand new items at a loss.

Here comes my shaming post of undesirable characters lurking in the far corners of Carousell:

  1. The “Traders”
    Why the quotation marks you ask? These people put the real traders to shame. Similar to the people who have a compulsive disorder to “like” every single item on Carousell, these people go around dropping “trade” comments quite loosely. I like to think that they are cheapskates in disguise. Had one asking to trade for a $10 blouse of mine. Took a look at what she was selling and selected two blouses priced at $5 each. Fair trade right since the value matched up? She dropped the trade request after that. Erm…ok. I’ll just give her the benefit of the doubt; maybe she really changed her mind. Not so with this other person. The conversation went cold after I enquired about her items.
  2. The Negotiators
    If the traders weren’t bad enough, the negotiators are worse. Another cheapskate in disguise. They ask if the price is negotiable for an item. When I ask in return what price are they offering, they stop responding. What were you expecting? That I would suddenly drop the price of an item to like really low? If you’re looking for a cheap sale, please try the pasar malam. This one person really took the cake. Was “interested” in more than one item of mine, but totally went dead on me after my response.
     
  3. Miss I’m-in-a-hurry
    This one irritated me quite a bit. She wanted something of mine, I suppose for a dinner that night. Unfortunately, she caught me while I was in transit in an airport. I only got to see her response after I landed at my destination. No response from her after that.

Seriously, what is wrong with these people? Can’t they have the decency to reply even if they are not interested to deal anymore?

lost comment

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My blog was down for a while due to the webhosting company having some server issues. Didn’t expect to get a rude shock this morning when I discovered I lost two of my latest entries including one with a comment. Thank God I managed to retrieve the two entries from Google’s cache, but I’m sad to say that I lost that comment. 🙁

Sorry Nancy!

hey, how about a meet up?

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Inspired to write this entry rant after I saw a friend’s post on Facebook about a guy who met up with all his Facebook friends and took a photo of each meet up…or so I think. (I admit that I didn’t read the article. Was judging by the title of the article.)

Talk about friends and meet ups. I wonder if all my friends would turn up if I asked them out. I seriously doubt it. I’ve seen people come and go. I’ve even given up on some of them. I’m resigned to the fact that some people are just meant to be acquaintances.

I do not mind that people occasionally say hello or want to catch up, but I really hate it when people approach me out of the blue to:

  • Ask of me a favour and then proceed to ignore me after getting an answer.
  • Talk to me because they are bored…then proceed to ignore me until the next time they can’t find someone else to talk to.

I do only frequently chat with a couple of people, which makes it all the more obvious when such people of the above scenarios approach me.

To prove my point, here are two scenarios that happened to me:

Scenario #1
This happened quite a long time ago when I still using MSN (an IM tool). I’m not using the exact words as I don’t really remember but it went something like this.

S: Hello.
Me: Hello. Yes, what do you want?
S: Why?
Me: You’re bored right? People who suddenly talk to me are either very bored or they want something from me.
S: Wah…don’t say until like that leh.

(I was obviously spot on in my guess.)

Scenario #2
This happened pretty recently on Facebook Messenger.

B: Hi. Do you know anyone from XX company? I am thinking of doing this event which requires approval for use of the XX venue.

(My parents used to work at XX company.)

Me: Meh…can ask my mum but my parents have retired from XX company for some time so not sure they can help. Do you have any contact from XX company?

(Conversation continues on for some time…)

B: I still remember the last time we met at XX venue.
Me: Haha…we should meet up…again.
B: Sure.

(Conversation continues on for some time…)

Me: Let me know when you’re free for lunch or dinner ok?

A few days later, I text B.

Me: 大老板，几时有空吃饭？(Big boss, when are you free to have a meal?)
B: Hi. Sorry…I’m not well these few days.
Me: Orh. Take care!

About a month later I text B again…

Me: 老板，when wanna meet up?

*silence*

I’m not saying that people should not approach me at all even after we haven’t talked in a long while or that people cannot ask me for help, but please do things with sincerity. I’m fully aware that I’m an introvert and am not the most sociable person to begin with. However, that does not mean that I don’t enjoy catching up with folks. If you really mean to catch up with me, then do so with sincerity and not leave me hanging high and dry until the next time you need my help.

30 day song challenge day 12: song from hated band

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Day 12 — A song from a band you hate

Ok…there’s Babymetal which I can’t figure out for nuts, but why would I be listening to their music if I dislike their music in the first place? Right?

So, I shall post a song that I like from a band that I don’t particularly like. How’s that?

And the band that I don’t particularly like is… *drumroll*

One Direction.

Hahaha…I’m serious. I have passed the phase of boybands so I really don’t understand what’s so good about them. BUT! I have to say that their songs ridiculously grow on you. The first song I discovered that is by them is “One Thing”.

wonder party

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I get regular updates from YouTube for my subscribed channels and the AKB48 channel is one of them. I got excited when I saw the new video with Mayuyu (Watanabe Mayu) and Paruru (Shimazaki Haruka) as they were wearing lolita outfits. They wore it for the song 「初恋の鍵」 (Hatsukoi no Kagi) under the Team Surprise unit. Team Surprise is a one-shot unit created for a pachinko campaign.

It’s not the first time that an AKB48 member wears a lolita outfit since Sato Sumire models for Angelic Pretty, but I still get excited no matter what. What’s more exciting is the outfits they are wearing: Angelic Pretty’s Wonder Party halter JSK. The Wonder Party print is a highly sought after print which was re-released due to its popularity.

The CM and making of 初恋の鍵:

dolly locks

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My faith in rebonding has been restored. I am proud to announce that I have rebonded my hair and it is now dolly smooth.

I tried rebonding my hair years ago. About the second or third time, my hair got really dry for some strange reason. It was straight but super dry and gross. That was it. No more rebonding for me. If it couldn’t give me the smooth dolly locks I wanted, then it ain’t good. Besides, I always felt that rebonding kind of made my hair ramrod straight…the ends all super pointy and very unnatural.

This time, I took a leap of faith and tried it again. Apparently there’s two types of rebonding now? The hairdresser promised that the type I was going for looked more soft and natural. Erm…ok. The result was as he had said, but I wasn’t getting my hopes up yet. I wanted to tweet that I had dolly locks now, but was afraid that I was jinxing it. After all, time will tell after the first wash.

First wash and every wash after that, my hair still remained smooth and straight. ALRIGHT! I’ve already had two compliments. Those who have seen my hair from before would know that my hair has a life of its own. It’s super dry (especially at the ends) and frizzy. I tried product after product to get the dolly locks I wanted and although the products did help to tame it a little, nothing…NOTHING worked like magic.

My only gripe is that my bangs is now rather flat and a little sparse. My hair is originally thin and little, but the frizziness made my bangs look thicker and fuller. I know there’s a method to create fuller-looking bangs, but I’m not sure how far back I can go before my crop of hair looks too thin. Gotta think more about this before taking the plunge.

PS: I hate the smell of chemicals in my hair after visiting the hairdresser. It takes a few washes to get the strong smell out. Meh.