Lance Armstrong & JT

Saturday, Nov 7th

On the train to Brooklyn: my nose buried in Dante's 'The Inferno.' I try never to skip the introduction or commentary section of good books; that's where you get the most interesting random facts. For instance, I learned that March 25 is the anniversary of the creation of Adam, of the conception, and of the Crucifixion of Christ. It also marks the Florentine New Year. Have decided that if I have a son born on March 25th, I will name him Adam. Hur hur...

Is it not ironic that those who seek out America know more about being American than those who were born in the motherland itself? Blood, sweat, and toil make their imprint on the mind & soul more than anything else. Why am I speaking in textbook style? I overheard a black lady ranting to her companion about how a minor snobbishly called herself a true American, indirectly calling all immigrants a farce. The narrator continued her complaint with a long rant about how she came to New York and worked her ass off to become a citizen. I feel you, woman. I hope it won't be so tough on my part.

How I know when I'm emo - I seek out Dashboard Confessional. I'm impatient and tired... I am losing hope. I'm trying to let go to reduce disappointment. Will just try to enjoy today and put college out of my mind.

Graffiti art is not stranded to bus stops and train stations anymore; they now board the actual modes of transportation:-

The cut-and-paste aesthetic!
Useful photograph for my extra credit paper on 'Graffiti Artists & Vandalism as Political Art.'

Anyway, my agenda in going to Brooklyn that morning was to do some part-time dog-walking! I was terribly late to meet Sharlene & Janet at the Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition. But as it turned out, they only got there 10 minutes before I did. Phew~ I always stress myself out more than necessary.


I had so much fun with the girls! :) We were introduced to a spirited and shaggy guy named Lance:-

Lance certainly is 'Armstrong.'
Instead of walking a dog, I got walked. Don't underestimate his size. That mutt can pull!

He's such a hater.
Lance dislikes all other animals and goes into a frenzy whenever he spots them; we had to steer clear of pigeons and other dog-walkers.

Sharlene put our names down at this popular brunch place in Williamsburg, so by the time we turned Lance in, we were just in time for brunch without having to stand in the ridiculously long queue. The eatery, Egg, is also listed in my NFT guidebook, so I knew it had to be good stuff.

Egg

135 N 5th St # A, Brooklyn, NY
718-302-5151‎

Egg is popular for its organic and farm grown ingredients. Breakfast is served throughout the day every single day.

Crayons to amuse yourself while waiting for your order /(^.^)\

Eggs Rothko
Easy-cooked egg in a slice of Amy's brioche and topped with Grafton cheddar. Served with broiled tomatoes and a side of meat or seasonal vegetables.

Sharlene & Janet both ordered this, but with different sides. Shar's homemade pork sausage (above) was spicy!

Janet had a side of hash browns, which were curiously shaped like a slightly flattened-sphere.
The brioche was sinfully drenched in butter and deep-fried; delicious, but way too oily for my comfort.

My Organic Grits & Eggs
Stone-ground grits from South Carolina's Anson Mills, eggs cooked any style, served with a side of meat or seasonal vegetables (cheese grits +$1.25).

I chose for my eggs to be poached, which the kitchen did so perfectly. I am always in awe of perfectly poached eggs, because it is one thing I have never accomplished. The cheese grits were very dense and filling. There was a faint sweetness in the oats. For choice of meat, I went with the one thing on the menu that I didn't recognize - the High Hope Farms Scrapple. It turned out to be a kind of sausage patty with the texture of liver.

Side of Caramelized Grapefruit with Mint
Came with a cute spoon with rigged edges to ease scooping out the segments! Was expecting something more gourmet. Therefore, I was disappointed that it was merely 3/4 of a grapefruit with a sprinkling of brown sugar & mint leaves on top. Apa ini! Tipu saya...


Good meal though! Any variation from campus food is a welcome relieve.

My pictures from the photo shoot for Hofstra are out! :D

The 10 models :)

Campaigning Hofstra Pride :)

Back to Saturday,

That little side-step was a tribute to my long-brown hair, which is no more!

I got a hair cut in the city on Saturday.

My mane is as dark as a raven's wing now.....

I have a friend called Katarina who's extremely petite and has the lowest pain-threshold that I know of. Whenever she gets a hair cut, she actually feels pain! Isn't that crazy? When I saw my long tresses falling to the ground with every metallic *snip*, my heart cried out. But my pain was mental rather than physical. I so wasn't ready to let go of my brown hair, my pride & confidence... :(

So at first, I was mortified. It looked good on location, but that's inevitable after professional blow-dries and touch ups. I knew it would go out of shape after a day or two.

It's such a dark black, it's actually darker than my natural hair color! That's cause the hair stylist used a mixture of blue + black, which reminds me of Violet's hair in The Incredibles.

It is also the same color as Taco Bell's new BLACK JACK TACO. Wtf.

Which tastes just like any other regular taco btw. Leftover Halloween gimmick. Wtf.

Joey & Mike T said it looks good, but maybe they were just being polite. I showed up at Cristina's front door on Sunday morning and she just started laughing hysterically! Her 1st impression was that of Wednesday Adams. Kim said he doesn't think any haircut could make me look bad... :') Aww... Mike Davis didn't notice any difference, but that was because I'd put my bangs back with a hairband. Oh, he also gave me a 'Rummy Bear' to make up for upsetting me on Friday! That was really nice of him. The bear was delicious! FYI, 'Rummy Bears' = exactly what they sound like -> Gummy bears soaked overnight in rum :) I'm making 'Rummy Worms' the next time I buy rum! Back to my new hair. I'm typing this at work now, and Tamlyn just said, "Did you dye your hair? ... It's very black." (Full stop) :(

So I moped and growled and whined...


But my hair is finally starting to grow on me. Pun!

I tried to console myself with the thought that I needn't worry about root-outgrowth anymore. I also look older, which is a good thing since people don't take me seriously enough. I've been told that I look 16! Sporting such a stylish cut also encourages me to carry myself with better poise.

I have to work it!

It turned out to be a marvelous weekend after all, because I am now excited about being able to experiment with hair extensions :D But the main factor which has got me riding a unicorn & galloping over rainbows has to do with lurve~

Sunday, Nov 8th

I thought it only fair to show Jim that I care, since he showed that he cares by picking me up from the mall. The smallest acts are the most meaningful :) He had to get Public Safety to jack his car up, because the engine had died. After he fetched me from the mall, we had dinner. When he walked me to my room, I took a chance and leaned in to peck his cheek. I ended up running to my room and bellowing - it was an epic failure! We ended up sort of bumping heads as he was turning to leave.

Sungguh memalukan!

However... Later that night, Melissa was out, so Jim & I hung out in my room by ourselves. Something we had never done before. As we were watching Queen music videos, his hand creeped across my shoulder. My lips and heart smiled. When Melissa came back we moved to the lounge.

"I'm sorry I left you hanging back there."

When I'm nervous, I talk and interrupt people when they are trying to kiss me. I have to stop doing that!

I'm so happy, yet terribly nervous around him. It's ridiculous, because I am so boisterous and confident around his best friend, Joey.

Is it weird for me to rant in so much detail about this incident? To my friends at Hofstra (or Jim): Don't feel awkward if you ever come across this. This is how I express myself; I write. The notion of blogging may seem contemptible to your culture, but it has become a part of me.

I know that Mike & Joey read ilikeloofahs from time to time, but if you, the reader, is Jim...

I just want you to know that
J'adore!

Black eyeliner

I just uncurled myself from a warm ball of happiness...

Being in the foetus position squeezes my chest tighter so that the happiness in my heart becomes more amassed.

My daring move, which I'd thought was foolhardy, paid off after all :))

Aneh

Last night I dreamed of painting my lips with blood. When I stood in front of the mirror this morn, there were flecks of dried blood on my lips...




Constricted by ~viridis-simnio

Can you figure it out?

The Artist's Comments:

It was hard trying to get that ribbon tied around my lower lip. It was even harder getting it to stay while taking the picture! XD But it was all worth it. Hope you guys like!


------

Model: Herself
Tool: Sony Cyber-shot camera

Wishes Come True

I just realized that my Halloween costumes are always about doing people a service :p

Last year, I 'put out fires.'

This year...

I granted wishes ;)

That's me. I'm a giver. Heheh!

I'll make your every wish come true..... ^_~

You just gotta rub me the right way.

Um.......... No.

After 2 weeks of failed attempts at finding Costume Choice No. 1 and Choice No. 2, I had to go with Choice No. 3. I ordered it online along with a prop from India, and spent the week before Halloween in a nail-biting, nerve-wrecking frenzy. They arrived the day before Halloween, and I finally breathed a deep sigh of relief... However, there's a reason I dislike buying stuff online - they turn out different from your mind's eye!

I assumed my costume would be hot pink as shown on the model above, but it was actually fushcia... Dem tulan... This is the 2nd time I've bought clothes online to have them turn up in a different color from that advertised. The first time happened with a leather jacket from Guess, which came in a chocolate brown instead of a soft calf-skin shade.

My Genie costume's actual color was as such ~>

Call me fussy, but there is a vast difference between hot pink and fuchsia!


I didn't take a single full body shot of myself the whole night! The picture above can be credited to Mike Cutrone. That's how much my 'camwhore-ness' has decreased. I'm also extremely lazy to blog nowadays, even with regards to this post. Is my 'Malaysian blogger' phase coming to an end?

One reason I liked my costume is because it reminded me of an outfit worn by my favorite Chipette (female chipmunk. Lol.) in 'The Chipmunks Adventure,' a 1987 cartoon. Brittany was a bitch & the fiesty one. If any kids cartoon character had sex appeal, it certainly was her!

While looking for a pic of Brittany using Google search, I came across this shot; it's part of a photo shoot taken for the 2009 Campari Calander. Check out the whole collection through the link. All are awesome!

When I told my dad I was going as a Genie for Halloween, he texted me back:
Tats nice. U can make the nasty stuff disappear or use ur magic 2 pay Uni fees:-P
SO dad.

I may have mentioned sometime last week on Twitter that Cris & I were going to be escorted by a team of sexy policemen on Halloween night ;) Well, here are our boys!

The RENO 911 squad!
OfficerS Dangle. Sexy legs...

LMAO. I have influenced Mike to become a camwhore! As you can see, he is still learning, but he's getting there. He camwhored during various stages of last night's outing XD

Jim's Halloween costume was pretty clever; the irony was dressing up as a goth (who hate anything conformist) for one of the most world's most commercialized holidays :)

So,

3 under dressed cops
1 bumblebee
1 vampire
1 goth
& 1 genie

caught a cab to the train station which would take us to Manhattan.

We made a new record > 7 passengers in a cab!

Deer caught in headlights.

Said Joey: This would be the perfect time to say, "Do you feel it?"

Jim looks wasted already. Lmao!


Something nipped me!

Fangs?

Gisele, the 'True Blood' fanatic. I'll stick to the books, thank you. I discovered them years before Sookie Stackhouse went on screen! =E

Every subway station was like a packed asylum. Plenty of interesting characters though, even for New York.

Like this man in a wedding dress.


Grandma and her grotesque grandson.

"Sammy, behind you."

Joey went all crazy with my camera:-

wtf.

Asian love ^_^

Can you differentiate Agent Dangle 1, 2 & 3 just by looking at their legs?

Lmao. Joey's pants were tightest! Big butt!

Queen-Bee~!

I really had no idea.

From the Nile.

Egyptian Queen: I want a picture with the belly dancer!
Me: Genie.
Egyptian Queen: Whatever. Same country!

Joey being a creeper, took random pictures of cute Asian girls.

Again with the chaos!

Our train suddenly stopped for a good 20 minutes. Everyone was getting fidgety and impatient to reach the parade grounds, but we were soon at 6th Avenue & Spring Street.

I feel like the Village's famous Halloween parade listed as one of the '100 Things To Do Before You Die' is overrated... With so many people milling about, it's almost impossible to get anywhere. The light drizzle made things messy, and tempers flared easily. It's definitely not an event for people with claustrophobia; Cristina got antsy and angry. If we'd had just slowed down and taken in the moment, all would have been much more enjoyable. But as it was, Cris wanted to get away from the crowds and the rest of us could use drinks. Every road going Eastwards seemed to be blocked though, thus our journey to St. Marks seemed never ending. At one point, we were like, where are we going? Let's just join the parade!

So we actually marched in the parade! It felt liberating :D It's always more fun being part of the costumed folk. Next time, I'm walking in the parade longer.



My vote for coolest costume spotted in the city this Halloween goes to a couple dressed as 'Swine Flu.' Both were decked out in hospital garb with pig masks on. They had 'H1' & 'N1' signs respectively stuck on the front of their shirts. I didn't manage to snap a picture because Joey had my camera, but look what I found on Google search:-

Very similar to the one I saw.


Gisele got really into her role last night. She kept hissing at people and making seductive vampy faces. I caught her baring her teeth at herself in the reflection of the subway windows. LOL. Damn weird.

Joey is fucking insane! How did I not hang out with this kid last year! He is King of Awkward. He said, "Nice costume!" to everyone he met, including a real cop (who looked quite pissed off) and a homeless person (who looked flabbergasted).

He took some really good pictures, but also some really bad ones which are quite amusing:-

"Nice costume!"
What costume?

Joey... Leave the kebab guy alone!

JOEY. Leave Mike's ass alone!

Cigarette break.

Mike could almost pass off as a Chase bank security guard, if not for the short shorts.


After an hour of walking in heels, we were finally at Kenka's! Unsurprisingly, there was a queue before us. I asked my ex roommate who waits tables there if he could bump us up the list, but Dais said that even if he pulled strings, we'd have to wait at least an hour long; he suggested we go to Oh! Taisho instead.

Joey ordered 3 bottles of warm sake, which was like delicious nectar searing my insides and warming me from inside out.

Aérien. Heehee



See what I mean? X)

Happiness in and is an izakaya!

The food at Oh! Taisho was cheap and really good. My 'Tofu anchovy gratin' was basically cheesy-tofu-goodness~! Nom~!

My multipurpose magic lamp served as a flask for my liqueur.

It was also a bong :p

We felt like a Hookah lounge, so I Googled that shit and found one a mere block and street away.

What a small world; we sat next to a friend of Cristina's whom she'd met in Paris! I can't remember her name, but she was with a bunch of her girlfriends.

Joey went out for a smoke and came back swearing; he got hit on by a guy who apparently grabbed his waist and wanted Joey to follow him back. Woot!

At 2am, we were finally ready to call it a night.

I never understood why Carrie Bradshaw always has so much trouble hailing a cab in NYC, because I never had a problem. That is, BEFORE LAST NIGHT. More than 100 cabs sailed past us - all occupied. We could have stood smack in the middle of a main road for 3 hours and not gotten a ride!

One of my favorite events of the night was as follows: a shady black town car pulled over and was willing to negotiate a price (for the sake of the damsels in distress). Of all times, Joey chose to start swinging his hips back and forth, reenacting 'Hard Gay.' The driver took one disgusted look at Joey, and drove off. Amusement won over annoyance.

We ended up having to take a chauffeured town car. At Penn Station, our train wasn't due for another hour. So we propped ourselves against a pillar and took a nap. Cris fell asleep with her head on my shoulder and one of her fuzzy feelers poking my cheek. It felt nice and I was thoroughly comfy. Joey kept making me laugh, which I tried not to for fear of waking Cris up with my shaking shoulders.

Verdict: This year's Halloween = less scary than last year's.
Barely any drama; just good times with my best friends.
BOOtiful ;)

The Day Before Halloween

I got bitten by a vampire.

~EVIL~

Gisele is obsessed with 'True Blood.'


~INNOCENT~

Sexy schoolgirl. Fulamak!

I totally didn't plan on dressing up on Friday night, but all the girls were, so... Peer pressure lah -.-" G put me in her plaid skirt and working blouse then went back to dabbing fake blood on her neck. For some, Halloween can be a 3-day weekend or even a week-long celebration. The Mike who lives opposite the hallway from me wore makeup every single day last week in 'practicing to be a vamp for Saturday.'

Gisele doing Becca's makeup.
I'm not familiar with the show which Becca's character is from; I only know that she was some kind of dog named 'Booger.'


I kind of want to forget that night ever happened...
Second worse hangover of my life!