I’m lovin these things

I don’t know about you but I absolutely L.O.V.E fonts. I think it makes reading, especially web pages, more enjoyable when I have the right font on. My preferred font is tahoma 16. I know it’s a little small but it looks so pretty! I set my web browser so that my font overrides most, if not all, the pages that I view.

When I am writing on Word though, I like Arial Narrow (in 11). But Arial narrow looks blurry on my web browser and that’s why I don’t use it on my browser.

But I’m kind of sick of my tahoma already and that is why I surfed for new fonts just now and stumbled upon FontFace.com. I am absolutely lovin’ it! Most of the fonts are free for downloading. I went crazy doing so. I;ve downloaded what… 25 fonts already? Egad!

Anyway, I’m also loving Colbie Caillat’s Bubbly. I really love this song. it’s cute. She’s another myspace star, fyi. I heard her song for the first time on the radio in my brother’s car en route to Sunway for lunch on Thursday. My brother told me she was an actress. But I didn’t find that stated anywhere in her biography on her myspace page or wikipedia. But she does have that california beach girl look sported by the girls in those so-called reality tv series on MTV. Well, she’s from Malibu, so that explains it. But she’s got a pleasant voice and her songs are very folky, which I’m really into right now.

For some funny reason I cannot post her youtube video here so, I’ll just leave you the link ok? Just click here

P/S: Her other songs are great, too!

Be part of his world

Part of your world – Give us your voice contest entry

I have to give it to this guy for brilliant control of his falsetto.

Hope to make a video of my own rendition of this song, which is my ABSOLUTE favourite. Watch this space!

P/S: If you want to vote for Nick, click here. Apparently he’s not the only male singer who has sent in his entry. Hmmm…..

You do dangerous things when you’re bored

I’ve officially joined 10,000 milion other shower singers in posting a video of their own rendition of a popular song on youtube. Yes, I’m quite shameless :P

But, hey, it’s all in the name of fun. Some people are great makeup artists and some are great musicians. Me? My little talent is in singing. I’m no American Idol material though. Otherwise, I’d have quit my job a long time ago hehehehe

Enjoy my vid. And oh, don’t hurt your neck watching the vid. Just close your eyes and enjoy the song :)

11 pounds.. woops make that 8

I just realised that over the fasting month, I had lost 11 pounds. Actually, I believe I lost more than that – maybe 15? – because I definitely gained a bit more weight after pigging out during Raya. But last week, I weighed myself and I have gained 1kg. I’m still at 56kg today. That means I lost 11 and gained 3. Damn!

Oh well. Losing 11 or even 8 pounds is STILL a big deal, right? I mean, it took me FOUR years to be 55kg again. Seriously! So how can I not be happy about losing the weight in a matter of months? That would be doing myself injustice.

Anyway, I promise, promise, promise NOT to be obsessed by the number on the scale. I’m exercising for my health FIRST and vanity reasons second :P

Well, better go to bed now. I’m still not done with transcribing the interview (which I started on Sunday). I have ZERO motivation to continue even 25 minutes more. I’ll save it for tomorrow. A girl’s gotta rest too you know!

Pumping irons

I went to the gym this morning and got the gym instructor to help teach me how to lift weights. He ended up creating a personal training programme for me:)

He guided me through each step and I’m so glad I took the time to listen to him. So, every other day from now on, I will do my usual 30-minute walk/jog/run, followed by a 15-minute strength training session. I will do four types of exercises aimed at strengthening my upper and lower back, core, arms and legs.

They are:

1. lat (i’m guessing it’s lateral) pull down. I am to do 3 times of 16 repetitions with a one minute rest in between. Weight to lift: 60lbs.
2. Bent over row. 3x 16 reps with one minute rest. 30lbs
3. Chest press. 3×16 reps ” “. 10lbs
4. Squat. 3×16 reps. 5lbs on each hand.

How do I know how much weight to lift? Easy.

Start small – at maybe 10 or 20 pounds. Try to lift the weight on 16 counts. If it feels too light, add another 10 pounds and repeat the process until you have reached a weight where you’re really struggling to lift or push by the 16th count. That’s how I came to the amount of weight I am supposed to lift.

As you progress, you’ll find that you can lift the weights for longer than 16 counts. That’s a sign for you to add more weight. But you still lift or push for 16 counts and do three sets of each exercise.

I found the chest press and squat the hardest to do (properly). I could barely push 10lbs of weight and doing squats by leading with my butt felt “unnatural”. But I could really feel the burn even after two sets of 16 reps. I also learned that sometimes, stretching or lifting weights using the right posture feels awkward. But keep at it because it will minimise, if not prevent, injuries.

Right after stepping out of the gym, I swear I felt my stomach muscle stretch like I had just done 50 sit-ups. That’s motivation enough for me because I’m not such a big fan of crunches. But of course, I can’t be too overzealous and start strength training everyday – no matter how tempting that sounds. That’s dangerous actually. You’re suppose to train only every other day. Your muscles and bones need a rest day too, you know!

I’m really, really glad that I finally asked 1zham, the fitness instructor, for help with my personal training programme. He was only too eager to help.

So people at the office and gym members, go to your gym and make full use of your instructors. Helping you get fit and not getting injured in the process is what they were paid to do!

The way 1zham was counting the reps for me and making sure I did all the moves in good form made me feel like, I don’t know, Jessica Alba
training with her own PERSONAL trainer!

Of course, there were moments when I felt like saying, “shit this is painful/too difficult” and I wanna give up. But having him there giving me encouragement, made me even more determined to finish that damn set so I can get it out of the way already!

I just have to remember that he’s NOT the drill sergeant out to make my maggot little self into someone fit enough to join the US marine. Although his booming voice did make him sound like one!

At the end of the day, it’s my back that’s going to feel better and my arms and thighs that will be more shapely. Nak cantik, nak sihat, kenalah put some effort!

The exercise are actually easy to do. I just need to get used to them.

Pass me the aspirin, honey!

Finally, I gave Michelle’s honey aspirin mask a try.

I used four uncoated aspirins (actual aspirins, not panadol, just as she suggested) from Watson for less than RM3 (for sepapan). But I think I put too much honey. So, instead of having a grainy texture, my mask ended up being slightly watery and VERY sticky :P I had to improvise and add another two aspirins. But the damage has been done and I STILL didn’t get the consistency that I wanted. *Sigh* I’m so good at making “mistakes”, aren’t I? (refer to last post)

Well, I’ll do better next time.

But I’m sure I still got some benefit from the mask. Honey is after all good for the skin. Although my honey aspirin mask was less than perfect, I still scrubbed my face with my electric toothbrush (which I also bought two for RM29. Actually it was a buy 1 free 1 offer). I think my skin softened up a bit.

After that, I watched Michelle’s basic makeup tutorial again and was reminded about my free sample of everyday_minerals foundation, concealer and blusher which haven’t arrived. I made the online “purchase” (technically, I only paid for the USD5 postage fees) on Oct 21. Is it realistic to expect the package to arrive in less than a month? Well, it’s gonna be a month in a few more days, so I guess it isn’t (realistic).

Speaking of mineral makeup, I found out recently that i.d_Bareminerals (another mineral makeup brand) is available at selected stores in Malaysia. I can’t remember which store it was – i’m pretty sure it’s not sasa. Could it be shins? – but it’s at Mid_Valley.

The products are kind of pricey, which is to be expected, I guess. But ever since I discovered Elianto, I’m reluctant to go anywhere else and pay twice or three times the price I can get at Elianto. In fact, I already have a debit card-sorta-thing with the store where I can “reload” my card and not pay in cash/credit. I have close to RM40 worth of points in my debit card right now. I already know what to buy next from the store: makeup brushes and a bottle of brush cleanser/cleaner. The four or five brushes which I need would cost me less than RM50 and the brush cleanser/cleaner is about RM18.

Well, I should really go to bed. Today’s Tomorrow’s a brand new working day. I can’t wait for next weekend (remember my overdue lingerie shopping?).

Talk to you soon!

Acknowledge and move on

Arggh… I made a factual mistake in my article :(

It was my fault. I had misunderstood something and didn’t even think to verify it (because I thought it was correct).

My contact was fretting about having to explain it to his superior. I sent him an sms apologising for the honest mistake and offered to carry a correction in the coming issue. All he needs to do is write me the correction (it’s better if it comes from him) and I’ll submit it. I even told him that he could show his boss my sms if he likes.

The question now is: will I let this ruin my Sunday?

No, absolutely not.

Mistakes happen. Besides, what more can I do than to carry an official correction in the newspaper?

A few years ago, I would have beaten myself up for this. I would have made such a huge deal out of this. I would have chided myself: “What were you thinking?” and replayed this in my head over and over and over again.

But I’m too old for that and life’s far too short for this too. My motto now is: acknowledge the error, apologise and move on.

Not that I don’t care. I do, deeply. Why would I want to make a mistake when I can avoid it?

To set the record straight, I’m normally very careful about these things. Yet I admit that this week, I wasn’t able to concentrate on the proof-reading. My page was only ready on Friday, despite my story being submitted on Tuesday. On Friday, I had an interview in the morning and the story was to be submitted by the end of the day. It was for the main paper today.

I can very well “share” the blame with a whole host of people in my office BUT I won’t. Why? Because the fact is, I was the one who wrote the article. Who cares about how early I had submitted the article and why it took two and a half days to lay out the pages?

I have to be real about this too. The mistake has been made so MOVE ON!

I really have NO time to waste. I’m actually writing this entry halfway through transcribing an interview for a story I want to submit on Tuesday. I have at least two stories to submit next week and I haven’t even secured the interview for my second story. I have an interview on Monday afternoon and possibly an interview on Tuesday morning or afternoon. That is why I’m working on a Sunday morning, voluntarily, so that I can get this first story out of the way.

So do you think I have time to worry about my contact “potentially” being scolded for something which is NOT his fault?

Well, I’d love to hold his hands but that is something which he has to deal with.

If I spend all that time pitying him, will anyone pity me? I could well be scolded for making this mistake and get another scolding if I can’t submit my second story. Do you think HE’D care? I didn’t think so.

So, I have said my apologies and have promised to make the correction. Now, I’m going to go back to transcribing my tape.

Running, running as fast as we can

I think it’s about time I started weight training.

Actually, it was the fitness instructor at my office gym who suggested that I start. He said that I have a noticeable hunchback and said that weight training can help strengthen my bones. Since I’m hunching, I should start with my back.

He didn’t have to point it out to me. I’ve known I have a tendency to hunch since secondary school. Then a friend in college expressed how annoyed she felt to see me walking around with a hunch back. But it’s an old habit cultivated since small. Old habits die hard, don’t they?

So on Monday, I’m going to spare another 30 minutes for weight training on top of my running regime. I’m happy to report that on Thursday, I went one level (speed) higher. I ran at Level 9! Who would have thought that just 5 months ago, I was very impressed with a colleague who ran at Level 8. Now I’m running faster than her!

I really recommend running to anyone. I used to HATE running but now I love it! I read that running is a great way to lose or maintain weight. It’s partly because I’m working my legs muscles which is a large muscle group. You can shed pounds (through burning fat) when you build muscle.

Now that I’ve discovered running, I’m no longer satisfied with jogging. It’s either walking or running for me – no in between.

For those interested, this is my circuit training formula: I start off by warming up (by walking) at Level 5. Then I jog at Level 7; slowly increasing my speed at Level 8 and finally at 9. I listen to my body as I’m running taking care not to over exert myself to the point of getting side stiches or cramping any muscle. So when I feel myself getting out of breath, I go back to walking at 5 and repeat the entire process. The challenge for me is NOT to take too long a break to catch my breath. I mean, I don’t want to end up walking more than running. To reap major rewards, I should make sure I run more than I walk.

Motivation to keep running is not difficult for me. I just listen to music to keep me moving. I love listening to rock songs or techno when I’m working out. So Aly_&_ AJ and Kelly_Clarkson have been my constant companion on the treadmill. BTW, I run at my fastest speed (9) whenever I reach a chorus. Each song normally repeat the chorus a minimum of 2 times. But Kelly Clarkson’s Breakaway and Since You’ve Been Gone are quite challenging for me because the chorus is repeated don’t know how many times. So sometimes I cheat and walk it out during one final chorus :P Well, I’m only human *hehehe*

Anywho, I’m really serious about the weight training. It’s not just my back that I want to target. I’d like to firm up my arms too. We’ll see how that goes.

Tis the season to… buy new undies

I was doing the laundry just now (okay, I was actually sorting out clothes to send to the laundromat) and had a good look at my current collection of bras and panties. One thought came to mind: I really need to go undies shopping.

The last time I went bra/panty shopping, I spent close to RM80 for about five pieces of la_senza undies without my husband’s knowledge. He still doesn’t know how much they REALLY cost. I would have gotten an earful from him (who pays about RM10 for three pairs of boxers). Well, he doesn’t need to know EVERYTHING.

Anyway, I told my husband about my dire need for new lingerie and he agreed that “we’d go bra shopping at la_senza” next time he gets paid (which is about next weekend).

I remember writing in my blog some time back about the drawbacks of la_senza bras. I’m not too thrilled about the straps. BUT the cups fit well and most importantly, my bras haven’t gone out of shape or look dated after numerous washes. Eg: the straps of my push bra are adorned with little diamentes. None has fallen off since I bought them.

I know that if I want them to last, I’m not suppose to machine wash them. But honestly, who has the time? (Not me!) It’s good enough that I hand wash my undies, ok? Anyway, I put my bras in a laundry net bag whenever I machine wash ‘em, and that is supposed to protect them or something.

Since I have about a week more before I go lingerie shopping, I was hoping to hear from you guys about your favourite brand of lingerie. What brand is filling your bra and panties drawers? Why that brand? And where can I find this brand?

I’d like to keep my option open. I’m alright with la_senza but surely there are other equally good/better brands out there? Personally, I’ve tried brands like Audrey, Wacoal and Triumph but I wasn’t really impressed. Either they lose their shape waaay too fast or they fit awful on me. However, I have never tried anything from Blush!, xixili or any other brands, though. Maybe you have and that’s why I want to hear from you.

Later people!

Yesterday once more

I spent a good hour last night watching old video clips on youtube. God bless youtube, seriously. Watching the bite-sized videos is so much better than watching tv. For me anyway.

First I watched videos on how to apply makeup. Later, when the videos were too slow to load, I got bored and called up my brother after finding out about amazing race 12 – which apparently was never shown on astro. I wonder why?

Then he said that I could probably watch the show on youtube. That’s when he also asked me to search for video clips from the 80s and read the comments under the video. They (the videos and comments) are hilarious especially coming from teens. One of them actually wished she was alive then because she was sick of all the sexually-charged video clips on MTV. *lol*

Anyway, I searched for all of my favourite videos like Electric Youth and Toy Soldiers. Guess what? I found the video which I had been looking for since three years ago. I knew Phil Collins had sung it but it never occurred to me that he sang it when he was with the band Genesis!

The song is called No Son of Mine. The video and lyrics seem to suggest that it’s about a boy who ran away from home after his father sexually abused him repeatedly. I was probably in my early teens when I first heard the song and it left such an impact on me. I actually wrote about trying to search for the song on the Internet maybe three years ago. So glad I found it on youtube!

P/S: I can’t wait to show my husband the video to Toy Soldiers. He had never heard of Martika before – when Martika came out, he was into rock kapak :P.