I Hate Banks.

I freaking hate banks! An Australian company banked in money to my bank account, but because it was a bloody TT (WHICH I didn't know they were using a Foreign Telegraphic Transfer - they called it an "international direct deposit"), the banks deducted about a whopping RM100 from my account! :( Even TTs from Malaysia are only charged RM10!

I HATE BANKS. This is beyond ridiculous. I've e-mailed the Aussies about this, but I don't know if they're going to do anything about it. Mei says that they're supposed to have banked in an extra 25USD to cover the TT charges.

Another reason to hate banks: someone cloned Mei's credit card and charged 75USD to it! Do you know how much that is? That's over RM250. And our stupid local bank says it's a perfectly legit transaction and is disputing the dispute.

ARGH!!

Ms. Whimsy

Stumbled upon a blogger template website, and it totally rocks! Click HERE to check it out. :D My two favourite templates are Pad Mess and Art Template. Will probably be changing the template of this (personal) blog of mine. :P I figure, the only page elements I'd be annoyed at losing are the Nuffnang ads - but I can easily install those again. And is *this* the most useful webpage or what?

Went to uni today to watch "Cinta", and cried like SIX times in the library because the film is such a puller of heartstrings! So totally embarassing. And COD-ed my burgundy studded bag with Charmin. :D I love love love my studded bag! I took an army of photographs, but too lazy to upload them now. :P

Nerve-wracking week ahead. The stuff I like is in pink. The stuff I'm nervous about is in green. The stuff I can deal with is in purple.

Planning to do my Broadcasting TV script assignment tonight.
Going out with mum tomorrow for sushi and shopping.
Must do Media, Culture, Power major essay.
Must do Malaysian Cinema major RESEARCH essay.
Must interview Pete Teo, local musical genius for aforementioned Malaysian Cinema essay.
Must plan, script, interview, shoot for Broadcasting TV Show Project.
Must work on group project for Malaysian Cinema pre-production film.
Going out with mum on Thursday.
Post a shirt I've sold.
Study for exams.

Is there any wonder why I feel stressed? I'm glad I don't have as many hands-on subjects to take after this semester - projects are stressful! I can handle essays. Bah.

Wholemeal bread.

The law of unintended consequences.

I wanted a red Chanel-inspired bag. :P
Offered advertising proposals to 2 blogshops.
Both said yes. So I decided to get 1 red & 1 black.


Red @ TripleBee | Black @ BagzPool

I love the red one! Haven't received the black one yet.
Wondered if I should get a white one and complete the collection.
Offered advertising proposals to 2 blogshops.
Both said yes. Owh.
Getting 1 in white and ...
oh, what the heck. Let's get one in pink too.
Paris Hilton has one. :P


White-gold @ B-Zenn | Pink @ Garderobe

Yay. How wholesome.
A happy family of Chanel-inspired, quilted chain bags :D
Like collecting stamps.

Three blind mice.

What do you do when you feel down?
I watch Twilight. :P

It always makes me feel better. :D

Latest online conquest:

Courtesy of Melody Fashion Store :)

Recording every online treasure is so fun :D
And useful for when I do a collage-like blog post on YSK later on!

Therapy.

Comb your hair. Watch fish swim. Breathe deeply. But the truth is that nothing beats stress as well as shopping. :D A glorious end to an otherwise awful, crapfest of a week.

Courtesy of darling, darling Charmin from Glossy Addiction

Death by essay.

My Media Texts assignment on Singin' In The Rain (1952) is killin' me! The all-too-cheerful songs now seem grossly inappropriate.

Anyway. Only squeezing in a blog entry now because I didn't want to bookmark the next couple of webpages I'm gonna hyperlink here. Re-enrolment is around the corner, and I'm still in a pickle about which unit to choose as my last elective. :(

For now, I'm going with Marketing Theory & Practice as my 1st choice and Introduction to e-Business as my 2nd choice. Haven't seen The Light yet.

Sometimes, I feel like a loan shark.

One of the biggest learning curves of YourShoppingKaki.com is dealing with advertisers. One of the biggest downsides of dealing with advertisers are what I call "DA"s - a.k.a. Difficult Advertisers.

There are three types of DAs:

(1) The kind who don't pay up.
(2) The kind who go MIA, leaving me to design their advertisement banners and post up their ads.
(3) The post-MIA, who went MIA and then when they return, complain (wrongly) that I placed their ad in the wrong locations and/or didn't do a proper ad design for them.

And get this: most of my advertisers are young people - between the ages of 17 to under-30. I'm not saying age is a factor, but that this is happening despite their young age - where did they learn such ridiculous habits from? Some of them are more jaded than 50-year-old businessmen.

It's official.

Josh Groban asked me to marry him.

No, I'm only joking. Sadly. :(

Anyway, what's really official is that this is Day Three on my New Lifestyle Program. I'm calling it the "NLP" because the word "diet" is jinxed and just doesn't work. Technically, everything you eat is a diet. It's just a matter of healthy diet vs. unhealthy diet.

Also, WHEN I lose the targeted 20 to 30 kgs, I will soooo totally write a story on this! I know it's been written a million and one times, but how can I not do it just because other people have already done it? I was gonna say "I will soooo totally write a book on this", but that's been done a million and one times - I know, because I've bought and read a million and one of those books - and I don't have the discipline to write an entire book from cover to cover. :P

Anyway, this is why I love having this narcissistic little blog. :D My first-year journalism lecturer used to say, "The only thing you can write without thinking about your audience is your personal diary" - but personal diaries are now defunct and archaic, and The Personal Blog has taken the world by storm. :)

So today is Day 3. What have I been doing? I've been eating as usual, actually, but minus the 100-times-a-day snacks. My type of food hasn't changed, I haven't ditched my beloved carbs for broiled veggies or anything like that (like that will ever happen! Haha!) - but I've been working out on The Treadmill (which has been collecting dust for the past 6 months in terms of me using it, ever) everyday. :D For that, I deserve a cookie I deserve to blog about this means-the-world-to-me-but-the-world-doesn't-give-two-poopers-about achievement of mine.

Look at those muscles! I will never look like this.

I think I should give The Treadmill a name. So I don't sound like I'm conforming to gym-junkiehood. I think I'll call it The Hamster Ball.

What's my driving motivation? I guess the whole "doing this for Mr Right" thing isn't working out, because I haven't found Mr Right and I don't want this fictional character to think he's such a big shot that I'd lose 30kgs for him - so I'm pegging it down to a battle between two things:

Big, delicious greasy American cheeseburgers and "freedom" fries ... versus ...

GETTING MARRIED.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

Conclusion thus far: I think I've lost 2 pounds... which is like 0.9 kgs. But it's a START yeah! :D

I've never documented actual NLPs on this blog before, always been too embarassed, but now that I've somehow grown really thick skin over the past few months/year, I think it's okay to blog about losing weight + get braces. Oh yes, I forgot to mention, I think I'm getting braces! :D Like actual metal stuff in my mouth. Well actually I don't know what it looks like, I haven't went to consult the dentist yet.

But my grandparents came over yesterday and they Not Only Wanted Me To Lose Weight (as usual, haven't I mentioned this a billion times on this blog already?), they also wanted me to fix my teeth. Not like they're going to pay for my dental work, ARE THEY?

I'm just curious to see what my extended family will find fault with after I lose 4 stone (oh I just found a nicer way to say "25kgs" :D) and fix my teeth. You can BET that I'll blog about it then too. What's life without critical family members anyway.

Argh. I'd better hurry up along and lose the 4 stone (haha I just love saying that coz it sounds like so little: 1, 2, 3, 4!) before Chinese New Year. Because that's when family members come in herds (like hyenas) or colonies (like vultures). That's why I don't celebrate my birthdays anymore - to avoid actually inviting them into my home to criticise me. I wonder if everyone's families are like this.

Oh, and this is how I'm actually rewarding my newfound willpower. :D It's not a belt - it's a bracelet. It's one of those belt-like bracelets. Haha. I think it has the potential to look awesome.

Courtesy of Lovely Closet :)

And she said, "I have a dream".

Martin Luther King Jr. said it, and I'll say it now. Spurred on by the unexpected success of Your Shopping Kaki (and its impending conclusion) - I have a new dream:

I'm gonna lose weight and weigh 55-60kgs.

Oprah totally did it once, right? I love Oprah :)

Apparently for my height (168cm or 5'6"), I'm supposed to be 140lbs (63kgs) according to "Western" calculations - but according to Malaysian charts, I think I'm supposed to be like 55kgs (121lbs), max. So with some compromise, anywhere between 55-60kgs should be a-okay. :D And I know my friends in school (and Hollywood actresses) weigh like 45kgs, but I totally am not willing to lose that much weight! :( I'm definitely not one of those naturally thin people who are effortlessly burning more calories than they can consume... which is why Beyonce (who gave Taylor Swift her "moment" at the VMAs, ahahaha, is such an inspiration to me!): *Click here to read why*

Okay, okay, so you haven't like never read this whole great weight-loss idea on my blog before. But I'm serious! I've realised what a chubby, chinless face I have on camera, and I guess the not-totally-untrue stereotype is that you have to be not fat to be really successful. Plus, I'm getting more and more pressure from The Extended Family every year that passes to (1) be smart, (2) be thin, and (3) get married. It won't be very long before they pile on (4) have lots and lots of babies, but that's a story for another time.

So yeah! Lose weight, lose weight, LOSE WEIGHT. I'm sick and tired of being constantly told to lose weight - so I'm guessing that once I've actually shed the extra pounds, people will Stop Bugging Me!

Plus there's always shopping to look forward to once I've lost weight. :D

P.S: I've already started :P This is for my "thin collection",
courtesy of Sensual Seductionz.

Stud Fest '09

Do you ever wonder what we do in a Media, Culture, Power tutorial?

Shang was the bourgeoisie, and I was the proletariat!

Besides that, remember when I blogged about my DIY goals? :D



DIY Studded Vest: Accomplished!



I didn't dare make it too OTT in case I ruined the whole vest, but I like it this way! :D It's simple and nice, and the studs are outrageously shiny. Studding this vest literally took my blood, sweat, and tears - well, not the tears - but blood, yes! My thumb accidentally slipped when I was pushing one of the studs into the vest, and the sharp pokey point of the stud speared under my thumb's nail... aaaaahh! LOL I make it sound a lot grosser than it was. But imagine BLOOD, lots of BLOOD.

But my thumb is ok now. Thank you for asking. :P

I also made 2 studded belts - halfway, technically, since I've studded them but haven't put in the clasps (that means haven't gotten mum to put in the clasps, haha!). Mum and I went craft-shopping (and food-shopping as well, since we were in SS2) in SS2 and bought rubbers (not condoms). But rubber. The elastic for belts.

To set my studded obsession into context, these are all the studded things I own so far:


Double-straight row silver-studded belt: DIY
Gold-studded white elastic belt: DIY
Studded black vest: DIY
Studded panel belt: Forever21, RM22
Bronze-studded belt: FOC (came with a tank dress from Parsealed)
Gold-studded black belt: FOC (wrote an advertorial for Motte Closet)
Studded bangle: Came in a set of 4 bangles from Nunfish (RM25 total)
Studs: From Eff Bombs

Still waiting for my last batch of silver studs from A Bit Of Everywhere. Then I'll play through them all by studding everything that keeps still long enough, hahaha!

Up, down, and sideways.

What I'm about to say is the most unoriginal quote about life, but it's true:

Life is a bloody rollercoaster ride.

Up: FlyFm & NST & Dot Com.
Down: Screwed up Dot Com transition. Lost 3000+ links.
Up: Recovered links by switching back to blogspot.
Down: Lost 500 links coz I deleted them, thinking the blogrolls were empty.
Up: Got both Dot Com and Blogspot running together.
Down: Wasted weekend and still a li'l traumatised.
Up: Lecturer gave everyone extension for Media Texts Assignment 2.
Down: Got back Media Texts Assignment 1. Rather disappointing grade that jeopardises scholarship.
Up: Lecturer gave everyone an extension for Media, Culture, Power Assignment 2.
Down: New deadline is during our mid-semester break! Have to go to uni just to hand in essay.
Up: Mummy bought me my very first Forever21 dress. :D

So I guess I should say, because life has so many ups and downs...
Life is all about moving sideways.

My dress is like this, but in different colours! :D

Growing up.

Last night was the worst night of the year for me... and it's all my fault! I don't blame anyone for what happened, because it wasn't John's fault (he's my StarHostz.com collaborative support contact) even though he feels super bad about what happened.

I don't even blame Blogger.com, although they really should issue a WARNING that when you change your domain from Blogspot.com to just plain .com, you lose the links on your blogrolls.

Yup. Three thousand glorious links to a multitude of blogshops... eight months of work... poof! Gone with the wind. In less than one minute.

So, yeah, I was pretty devastated. Like my whole virtual reality was crumbling down around me. And then I tried to face this with as much maturity as I could, and now I'm 80% over it. I'm just going to start linking blogshops again, one by one, from scratch. Wasn't there a saying somewhere that being a grown-up is being able to lose everything, and then start all over again?

Like the spider story. You know, the one where the spider weaves the web, then someone comes along and destroys it (in this case, I'm both the spider and the itchy-fingered destroyer), but the spider just spins its web all over again?

Also, this further reaffirms my decision to stop blogging on YSK once 2009 ends. New year, fresh start, time to concentrate more on studies and take on new hobbies! The blog'll still be there, and it belongs to me, so that's cool. Don't know about the .com version, but blogspot's one will still be there, and I guess another transition from .com back to blogspot will kill all the blogrolls again... but whatever. If I can face it once, I can deal with it again.

Waste not, want not.

My legs totally don't look like those, but Jean is sending me a pair anyway :P It's to accessorize my new favourite online treasure:

Which Jessica sent to me :) UK16 denim shorts, baby! The perfect fit nearly made me cry.

Tonight, I finally watched and understood Closer. Of course, I didn't think of Wikipedia-ing it, which resulted in me watching it on five separate occasions over the past five years... before fully understanding it today, and noticing all the subtle nuances I never noticed before.

My conclusion: That tall British doctor guy is gorgeous.

Shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist.

Shang & I with our new clothes from Sg Wang! Already! LOL!

Uni has been pretty shitty lately, what with the noise pollution from the fecking student election campaigns (I never realised how annoying and inconsiderate the screaming and cheering was until they kept disrupting my lectures and group meetings this past week... now I know) and other crappy affairs... and like most students right now, I need a semester break - and it's coming real soon, at the end of September, but in the meantime, I'll have to tolerate everything that pisses me off in uni...

So I'm really happy that Mummy took me on a very-mini-shopping-trip after class today... to Mei's attic! :D You might be familiar with her previous e-store, SeriouslySerious.com - but now she's opened a new one called Eff-Bombs.com :) Wheee!

I bought my long-awaited badges - been waiting over a month to buy these! :D It's something like 2 bucks a pop, totally my favourite place to buy fun badges! I wear them on everything - clothes, bags, vests - and now I've got some meaner ones for "angry days", LOL! And I got two as gifts for Jen & Shang! Shang's wanted the "Don't be trashy... RECYCLE" one ever since she saw me wear it to uni aeons ago, hahaha, and Jen likes the "i rock! my mama said so" one as much as I do :P

And Mei let me "make" some badges as well! :D With her funky badge-making machine thing. I felt like such a scientist. The pic below is blur (alamak!), but there's one that says: "SHOPPING is cheaper than a psychiatrist" :DDDD Badges never lie!

And as usual, I went there to buy badges, but I wound up diving head-first into her awesome new stocks of clothes as well :P Mum liked this one, and it was so comfy, so I bought it :) Under RM30, not bad ya! A li'l edgier than my usual clothes (which always seem to be either yellow or floral).

Btw, remember that Malaysian Cinema group project we've got? :D After 2 solid days of group work, the screenplay's nearly done now! We just have to storyboard, do the poster, shoot the trailer, come up with the budget and other things, and prepare the presentation! I hope it gets made into a movie by one of our indie filmmakers, lol! It's such a quirky li'l short film :)

Some photos for our visual diary.. I took all the pics except the one I'm in. :P

Look where Anis took us to dinner after one of our late meetings! :)



AYAM PENYET RIA in Sunway Pyramid.
Omg delicious, totally must-go!




There's one in The Curve called "Waroeng Penyet" -
I'll definitely go to that one next time! :D

Last but not least...
Pictures from the student council election campaigns...
to remind me to appreciate quieter times in future :)

Lucky number six!

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! :D Media appearance number six!

We started the story of my life with that "Pintar Pintas" children's gameshow when I was 12. Then that PMR news story that Raffick dragged me into when I was 15, me and him holding our PMR slips and grinning like idiots, hahaha! Then that public-speaking competition when I was 16, because all 3 winners were from SMKDJ.

Then that interview with The Star earlier this year, which was really embarassing but pretty cool because I've never had a reporter and a photographer in my house and room before! And then this morning, Ben the DJ from FlyFM's Pagi Show talked about Your Shopping Kaki (but I missed it! I'm so bummed that I missed it! There's no rerun for radio shows!).

And then, remember that e-mail interview with NST? I thought it would be a couple of weeks before that got published, but it came out today! And I almost missed it, gosh, haha, if I hadn't looked at the chatbox on YSK and saw someone saying that I was in the NST today - so I was like all, "OH NO! There's no more newspapers at 8pm at night!!"

But luckily Mummy took me to the petrol station and there was ONE LAST COPY of the New Straits Times there. The dude behind the counter was laughing curiously at this strange girl who suddenly barged into the kiosk with ugly purple spectacles, messy hair clipped up and a very yellow maxi dress and gasping at the NST.

RM1.20 well spent, because the online version is so messed up, hahaha! :D

Jenny says I should frame it up! :D Mummy suggested that too, ahahhaha! But I'm not going to do that...

I'm just gonna go laminate it. :D

Self Reward System

One of my many armchair principles is that, in order to keep yourself motivated, you have to practice the SRS - ak.a. Self Reward System.

Whether it's pigging out with hundred-dollar Lindt chocolates or a big unhealthy American cheeseburger at TGIF, you have to keep rewarding yourself everytime you get something done right! :D

The SRS rocks. For some strange reason, I seem to have branched into designing advertisements for blogshops - so I had my first "client" a couple of days ago. I told her she could pay me whatever she wanted to, and only if she was going to use my designs. So I designed three ads for her, and a fourth banner to use for her blog. To my delight, she liked my designs very much! :)

Here's where the SRS comes in: she wants to pay me RM50. As this is totally non-YSK-business-related funds, having earned it on a just-for-fun basis, I'm siphoning RM45 from it to a lovely cream-coloured floral dress from Doublewoot. The remaining RM5 goes into my bank account. :D Happy!

Fly me to the stars...

Whoa! :D Stellar Monday news!

This morning at 7-something, the DJ of Fly Fm mentioned Your Shopping Kaki on the "Pagi Show"! Needless to say, I totally missed it because I was asleep - but yay, I'm so happy! :D

I was told that the DJ said there's a blog called "Your Shopping Kaki", written by a 21-year-old named Pung Sha-Lene, and told the listeners how awesome the blog is and how it has everything about online shopping under one site! :D *Click to see what else I was told!*

So when I came online this afternoon, I got a bunch of e-mails and messages from readers and first-time visitors telling me about it and congratulating me. Heheheheee!

This is the best public holiday ever! :D And my day's only just begun.. seeing as I just woke up not long ago. Hahaha!

"Our country is officially in a recession." - Shangari.

Random photo: My broadcast journalism groupmates - Jin and Ai. :)

Not-so-random pics: My shopping kakis today! :D

We didn't actually buy anything from McDonald's, hahahah, but we crashed there to rest our aching feet and calculate the total damage we'd made to our wallets :P

Shangari brings her CASIO calculator everywhere she goes.

Dinner and buka puasa in Sakae Sushi! We walked from Sg Wang all the way to Pavillion... and Sakae Sushi was the only place left with available seats - the entire Pavillion was filled with people having dinner and breaking fast. Note-to-self: Don't have dinner outside during breaking-fast time unless we've reserved a table or something. o.O

The coolest thing about Sakae Sushi: the digital order forms! It was so cool - but kinda annoying because you have to use the computer screen to place your orders. I could hear people at other tables panicking when they order the wrong things, lol! (We panicked too.)

Oh, and the food is good too! :D The sushi on the conveyor belts were a li'l overpriced ... but the dishes in the menu were okay - as affordable as Sushi Zanmai!

So I guess what I wanted to say is... I love Sungei Wang! Where else can you find two floral dresses for RM25 each, a floral zipper dress (that fits you!) for RM29, and a white bohemian babydoll for RM26.90? And please don't say Times Square. All tourists of the world should totally come to Sungei Wang (and Times Square) to shop! :D

I think the tourists of the world know it too, because I saw so many tourists today! The only uncool part was when someone sneezed in the lift, and Shaza's eyes nearly popped out in panic. We were all thinking the same thing:

"OMG. H1N1."

On a final note, notice how Shaza, Shangari and I are so muhibah? :P How often can you find that perfect combo set of Malay, Indian, and Chinese? :D Also, we have the "Dan Lain-Lain" because Shaza is technically 90% "Dan Lain-Lain".

It's because we're 1Malaysia! :P

P.S: Shopping and recycling are our ways of helping the economy.