the random adventures of jojo

One of the best annual worldwide traditions is back! And it’s in a week’s time!

Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day is here again!!! <3 <3 <3
I love them a whole lot, and not just because of yummy ice cream and wacky flavours that are so full of ingredients (i/e you don’t get chopped up peanuts scattered here and there – you get a whole lotta good stuff!)

I love them also because of what their company meant to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield back then, and the values that have carried on til today. And yes, the owners are really called Ben and Jerry and they are still well and alive today, thankyouverymuch.

If you didn’t already know, I was with The Happy People Co (main franchisee for B&J in Singapore) for two years, doing Marketing for them. It was a super fun two years and I still miss those times

Practically everyone knows of FCD these days, but do you know why they have Free Cone Day around the world every single year?

Here’s a hint: it’s not just about marketing and “free” publicity.

// Free Cone Day, is Ben & Jerry’s fun-tastic way of saying thank you to the millions of ice cream lovers around the world. In the spirit of this moovellous kind day, I too would like to say my thanks to my super super lovely ex-colleagues for taking me out and spending time with me on my birthday this year when they learnt that I didn’t have plans. They made me very happy! Hehe.

Everybody, there can’t never be too much appreciation, so say your thanks and see you at Ben & Jerry’s on 23 March 2010!//

Important details:
23 March 2010 / 12pm – 7pm /
The Cathay / Orchard Central / United Square / Great World City / Vivo City / The Zoo* / Jurong Bird Park*
Chocolate Macadamia / Sweet Cream & Cookies (MY FAV!!!!!) / Strawberry Cheesecake / Mango Mango sorbet

* the outlets at the zoo and bird park close at 5pm

I can’t wait!! Hee. Shall drag my classmates over to The Cathay’s outlet after our class next Tuesday!!! Although, speaking from experience, being behind the dipcase and scooping out the ice cream and seeing happy faces is a lot more fun than queuing for free ice cream. Haha!

And, they’re gonna unveil a new flavour brought into Singapore on FCD too! OMG. Excited! Hahahahahaha.

Anyways, share your appreciation for the people around you and spread the news about B&J love! Go here for more details.

I WANT MY SWEET CREAM AND COOKIESSSSSSSSSSSSS.
I miss scooping ice cream.

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Instead of working on my CPJ, like I obviously should have been doing this entire week, I spent the time today editing my birthday photos instead. Oops?

Anyways, looking at my photos just made me happier this gloomy Sunday evening. I miss my camera, and I wanna go out and take photos soon! Anyone wants to go this Friday afternoon? Hee.

More details about my birthday can be found on last week’s Project 52 post, if you’re interested.

I started the day with my ex-colleagues at my favourite brunch place!

hhhhrrrroy. HAHAHA.

taken by andee

andee and his white ep-1!

eggs florentine that made me very happy!

and the most awesome pancakes everrrrr!

taken by andee

taken by andee

taken by andee

taken by andee

so cute, his ep-1’s super small lens cap! haha

my coloursplash flash sitting atop his ep-1.
notice how it is black. it was supposed to be pink, but mistakes and irresponsible blogshops caused it to remain black as a result of their folly, lack of following up, and my TOTALLY CANNOT BE BOTHERED TO CHASE THEM-ness. ahem.

ep-1 meets gf-1 meets Kiera, my d5000, and hroy’s new iPhone with Sigma lens =P

drowned in maple syrup

We headed to get drinks and pedicures, squealed at some dogs and cats before heading to get dinner at Da Paolo’s. I loveeee the king prawn pasta. Slurrrp. It was better than I’d remembered, like I’ve mentioned before, and now I’m craving for it again!!!!! Meh.

Dawnie came by for dinner, and looked scared by Andee who took this picture haha

Clara, otherwise known as my mad best friend, also came by though she was feeling abit sick. Loveee!!!! <3

Oh, but she had her revenge…

* I actually turned 24 lah. *sulk*

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silent contentment…

This was taken at my birthday dinner at Da Paolo’s on Saturday. I like how calm and serene it feels, and perhaps, that mood and photo effectively sums up how I felt by the end of my birthday.

Saturday turned out to be pretty great, which was rather unexpected, judging by my ranty emo outbursts the week that proceeded it.

Brunch with the ex-es at my favourite brunch place, incidentally introduced to me by them, was the perfect beginning to that day. Good food, and great company! It was nice catching up, and laughing at the various senses of humour that I’ve missed terribly.

I got a pedicure after that, with Charm and was pleasantly surprised at the expansion my now-favourite nails place has undergone. It’s now even more comfortable than before, and of course, there are few things that make me happier than getting my nails done.

Dinner was a quiet affair at Da Paolo’s with the ex-es, and Dawn and Clara who came down. My pasta was yummy yummy yummy! Even nicer than I’d remembered it to be, last I had it.

My Holland V walks are now complete, with the opening of Daily Scoop at Chip Bee Gardens!

Up in the Air with Clara after everyone left was awesome. When I last saw the trailer, I thought it was a typical Hollywood movie, and it totally confused me when it was mentioned that they were nominated for Best Picture!

Totally no regrets catching it – I was impressed with the movie. In fact, I really really love it! The editing and directing were both good, with a feel that was real and yet surreal at the same time. The script was good, with intelligent and funny dialogue. I hate slapstick, have I mentioned that before?

Acting was good as well, and George Clooney is just easy on the eyes. I adore his laugh lines! Sexy.. mm.

The movie was easy to digest and yet, so real but not in a sickeningly pretentious way.

Watching it, and being filled with the knowledge at the back of my head that I was going home to end my birthday with a conversation with Pinkie was just…. I don’t know how to put it. I just remember feeling totally content with my life at that point.

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AHA!!!! I just booked my air ticket to London!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HEE HEE HEE. First thing I wanted to do once it was my birthday! Lol.

*crosses fingers that everything goes as planned*

Also, I just checked aaaand.. Les Miserables extended their run and I’ll be able to catch it when I’m there!!!!!! HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY! WHEE!

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Love is when you’re so incredibly tired, frustrated and annoyed with a stupid piece of work and the smelliest loveliest bear of them all takes out his digital camera (something rare for this bear) and take a photo of Skip and Belly and Potatoe, uploads it and sends it to you saying that Skip and Belly and Potatoe said they haven’t seen me in a very long time so they asked him to send me a photo of them.

Valentine’s Day came early this year :]
Goodnight!

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The countdown ticker I have on my Dashboard reads:

Not sure why it doesn’t just say 5 months, but perhaps that’s a good thing. It made me smile when I glanced at it today. I don’t launch my Dashboard often so that helps.. Haha. Pinkie says I got the right countdown ticker because it says 4 months and 4 weeks, instead of 5 months. HAHA.

Because stupid things like that make me happier.

Sooo… If nothing goes wrong, I’ll be seeing Pinkie in 4 months and 4 weeks! Hehe. I miss Pinkie…

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joy in strangers

This was the second time Zhan and I met him. He owns a little shop space in Chin Swee where he repairs watches at that small wooden desk.

Across him along the corridor are a few fish tanks of random fish. He must love them lots, because he has a security camera installed at his store just to watch the fish.

Last week, we simply asked if we could photograph his stuff. This week when we went back, we started talking to him and he was quite happy to chat with us. Pleasant surprise for me, because I never know how to talk to the elderly much.

It turns out he used to take photographs too! He used a Nikon FM2, and had taken wedding photos amongst other stuff. I think he was a hobbyist. He mentioned being at Sungei Kadut (spelling?) trying to take photos of birds too. I asked if he had any of his photos around and he dug out some to show me.

I’ll be printing this out to give to him one day. He’s such a nice old man! Hehe.

—
http://project52.rumpledoodles.com/

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Aside from the simple resolution I made for 2010, I decided to start on something that I’ve never done before – a personal photography project.

Project 52 : one photo a week for the entire year.

I’d previously thought of taking up the 365 project, but I know myself well enough to know that there is no way I can keep up with taking and posting a photo every single day for year. Maybe I will take it up next time, but for now I can’t handle that.

Project 52 begins this week. I’ve set a few rules for myself, and a couple of friends (lovely snarky people hahaha) for this project : the photo has to be taken new each week, and posted up online on Sunday night.

That’s it. Free to shoot anything, any method, any type of photography.

Each time I go out and shoot, I learn something new. Each, and every single time. It may be something small, it may be something bigger and more substantial, but I learn something new every time. And if I learn something each time I go out and shoot, imagine how much I will learn and pick up if I shoot at least once every single week for a year? The thought of the rewards reaped at the end is kind of breathtaking.

Joining me are…

Pris of http://www.alexisthetiny.com/
I just got to know her recently, over Twitter, and she is awesome to chat with. Hehe. She has a cat plotting to take over the world. Awesomeeee.

Quick link to her Project 52 photos : http://www.alexisthetiny.com/category/project52/

Daniel of http://greatsocialevil.livejournal.com/
He’s my Indian Harry Potter classmate who makes me laugh by comforting me and telling me he will help vomit on stupid people who annoy me. Haha! You can also call him Gregory.
Quick link to his Project 52 photos : http://www.flickr.com/photos/greatsocialevil/sets/72157623055948473/

Zhan of http://biteme.rumpledoodles.com/
According to the About section on his blog, he was “forcefully vagabonded by a pink cotton candy into cyberspace” and refers to me as his “MOST gracious friend who knife-pointed him to the blogosphere.” HAHAHA.. One my favouritist snarky people to talk to and take photos with! He’s also the second person I offered to host on my server.
Quick link to his Project 52 photo : http://rumpledoodles.com/biteme/?cat=6

(edit: a couple more people are joining us on Project 52!!!)

Alex of http://ipwnyou.tumblr.com/
He’s just started dabbling with photography and I thought it’d be a good time for him to learn more as he takes more photos for this project! He claims I dragged him into this, though.. hmpf! It was encouragement please! Haha.

Quick link to his Project 52 photos : http://ipwnyou.tumblr.com/tagged/project_52

Winnie
She’s one of my blog readers who I started talking to because she very kindly offered to help me purchase my vanity products. Hehe.. She recently got a dSLR and thought that she’d take up this project too. Heh heh awesome!

Quick link to her Project 52 photos : http://www.flickr.com/photos/thelildromer/sets/72157623053463649/

—-

Quick link to my Project 52 photos : http://project52.rumpledoodles.com/

52 photos a year doesn’t sound like a lot, but one a week is quite a commitment, especially since we all are busy with school and our lives, but I believe that this simple project has a lot going for it.

Honestly, it’ll take me a fair bit of discipline to stick with this, especially when my weeks get mashed with each other and school gets crazy but I really hope I manage to end 2010 with 52 photos I am proud of.

We’re beginning this week, but I may start with a photo for last week as well, because technically the year did start last week. Heh.

Leave a comment if you’d like to join me on Project 52 – I’ll link you, and we’ll watch out for each photos each week..
And then go off and shoot – your first deadline is this Sunday!

*hops about*

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Ladies and gentlemen, today the unthinkable happened.

I went to the Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve.

*pause* AHAHAHA. Yea yea, quite shocking if you know me, because seriously.. I’d hardly go into these places for fun. Hahaha.

Today I went there because Zhan and I headed out to shoot, and when I got into his car this morning afternoon, we still had idea where we were headed out to shoot. HAHA. On a whim, we headed there because Zhan realised we’ve both never been there before.

The moment I got into the car, he greeted me with, “HELLO F11. LOOK AT THE CLOUDY SKY.”
Apparently, every time I wanted to shoot two years ago, it’d just rain and I wouldn’t be able to take any photos. =X

The weather cleared up considerably by the time we got to Sungei Buloh, but the lighting was quite shitty the entire day. It was a mix of cloudy and sunny, with a lot of clouds in the sky. Being under the shade of trees meant that I was forced to shoot on full Manual mode, something I am usually too lazy to do.

Not having two dials to change both the shutter speed and aperture setting is so annoying! I miss having two dials to work with. Bleh. With the stupid sun going in and out of clouds very frequently, the lighting would change whilst we were changing settings. Pftt.

But it was quite fun! Even though the path ahead constantly looked never ending, and at first glance it seemed like everything was just green and brown, we found ourselves stopping every 10 steps or so, having found something new to photograph. I likey! Trained me to look out for the tiniest details.

AND ABOUT THE EVIL MONITOR LIZARD!!!!!

I was innocently walking along the path, much like the one in the above photo, when ALL OF A SUDDEN I heard he rustling of leafs on the ground AND SOMETHING CRASHED INTO MY ANKLE!!!! WTH. It felt so fricking alive and I got a HUGEASS shock that I screamed horribly loudly, scaring Zhan who was walking just behind me. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. He later complained that all the noises we kept hearing in the nature reserve didn’t scare him – only my scream did. Hahahahaha.

OMG I haven’t screamed so loudly in a suuuuper long time man. I don’t even think Pinkie has heard me scream this loudly before. Haha. Zhan claims the stupid monitor lizard is now deaf, and that the entire park heard me. HAHA.

ANNNNYWAY, moving on. Here are the photos!
Not fantastic, methinks.. but I think for a day of sucky lighting and experimenting with full Manual settings, it was pretty alright. What do you think?

01.

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i like this one

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i had to go close cos i was using a prime lens. super afraid he’d suddenly run towards me! this wasn’t the one who attacked me.
obviously, this shot happened before one of his stupid friends decided to run into me.

09.
potato chip?

010.
i likey this one too

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015.

We left soon after a ton of ants and mozzies decided to attack me (and only me), and I quickly turned into Zhan’s “miserable sounding friend”. HAHAHA.

The moment we got into the car, it started pouring. Hurhurhur. My timing with rain is becoming better!! LOL.

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Zhan and I headed out to randomly take photos yesterday, and it turned out to be an awesome day out despite starting out about 3 hours later than we’d plan. Insomniacs unite. Hahaha.

Really, how does he make a D70s look like a PNS camera?
It looks tiny!! HAHAHA!

We headed to Sunshine Plaza where I had to get things printed first, and had a cheap dim sum lunch at Victor’s Dim Sum. It’s alright for a quick dim sum fix. I quite like their teochew dumplings! My favourite one thus far is from Imperial Treasure, where they have awesome mushroom dumplings too. I miss Noble House, though. No $$$ to go! Pshh.

his name is Cow.

nice bear paws! i likey.

We’d planned to head down to Tiong Bahru to just walk about and shoot. I miss that neighbourhood! My previous office was there, right next to the market. I used to love the walks I took on my own when I cut across the neighbourhood of old flats to the post office.

By the time we got there, we had about half an hour to 45 minutes of light to shoot with. Sun was setting! Makes for lovely light, albeit a super short while.

Still not totally used to my camera and lens, but I love it! Having fun exploring what it can do. Heh. I love the DOF on f1.4! And the nice creamy bokeh. *swoons*

Love how there are so many cats in the area. Heh. I don’t like cats as much as I love dogs, but the ones in Tiong Bahru are awesome! There was one which looked like Hitler, with a black patch above his lip but he refused to let me take a photo. Haha.

Guess what that shadow on the left is.

he was sweet.

And then this one kept trying to attack something.. I had to go pretty close cos of the prime lens, and was damn scared that some creature would fall on my head please!!

I love fat cats. Anddddd I also love that I can shoot in super low light!

focus is off for this one, but i like how the shot turned out!
murderous back alley shot. hur hur.

After fussing (read: squealing) over the cats for awhile, it got too dark to shoot so we headed to the market.

he was nice

After getting a drink and attempting to cool down, we headed down to Cityhall because Lennel mentioned that the underpass leading to Esplanade had gummy bears as part of an exhibition.

Was super happy when I got there because I realised that it’s the same exhibit that involved pages of kids storybooks! I’d seen photos of those on Facebook or something, and had wanted to head down but forgot about it.

Much to my delight, I recognised most of the illustrations that came from Enid Blyton books! So awesome. Heh. There were also pages from Roald Dahl books, and a few others I didn’t recognise.

And then the gummy bears of many colours! I want to eat them.

i thought the turquoise ones were so cute!

one of my favourite shots from yesterday. can you make out the box?

& then we go down the rabbit hole!

We took a walk to Esplanade after dinner. Never been a fan of night skyline shots of the city, but I thought I’d try and see what night shots my camera and lens can produce.

Handheld night shot! =P
I am incredibly lazy to bring a tripod out, most of the time. Hahaha.

Yech. Still don’t like night skyline shots.
Sooo…..
.
.
.
.
.

… this happened.

Hahaha! More fun, imo. We took a random drive around after that, rather unintentionally – we just happened to get lost. I *love* these!

Randomly turning into roads just because we’ve never seen or heard of their name before, or just because the name sounds cute. Driving around and discovering parts of Singapore we’ve never seen before.. and of course, finding new places to go take photos soon!

Still not completely used to my lens, especially since it’s a prime lens and the DOF is so small.. but I’m happy with it so far! Can’t wait to go out and shoot more more more. Heh.

Haven’t had one of these almost-perfect days in ages. I love adventures!
Life’s awesomeeeeeee!

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So I finally have a dSLR to call my own, YAYNESS! It’s a Nikon D5000. I also got the Sigma 30mm/f1.4 lens because f1.4 is impossible to resist, really. And because I never liked kit lenses.

I can’t quite believe that after all these years, I finally have my own! Hehe. Praise God for His provision indeed.

She has yet to be named, though, despite the barrage of ridiculous names Pinkie and Zhan have attempted to heap on her. Hmpf.

Brought her out to test out shots taken indoors at night just now.. Quite happy with what the lens can do! Although, I am rather unused to the new Nikon dSLRs.. The last one I’d used for awhile was Zhan’s D70s which he lent me for a few months.. They’re quite different now! So am not used to it yet.

Also, this lens has abit of a learning curve because of the huge aperture, making it tricky to focus at the exact point I want it to.. especially when photographing people. Ack.

Anyhow, here are some of the ‘test’ shots taken today. Mostly unedited. Not as well-taken as I’d like my photos to be, obviously, but just to give a taste of what this lens can do in the hands of someone (who hasn’t handled a dSLR in over a year!) for the first time…

my shelf of elliefants! muahaha!

my new hot pink shoes!!! dawnie took this shot

jiao bin!!! Ahaha! this was taken in Ken Noodle House at Cuppage.
if you’ve been there, you’d know how dark the place actually is!

my ramen! i’ve missed the ramen at this place. i think it’s much nicer than the famous place in Central…
took this shot in a mad hurry because i was starving. hahaha =X

LOL, one of my favourite shots today. look how scared dawnie looks!! HAHA

hello, random bokeh.

bear with coke. crazed bear!

paw!

AHAHAHAHAHA OMG. every time i look at this photo, i laugh.
focus is off though. also, it’s incredibly hard to meter properly for someone who is dark AND wearing a white shirt!!!!! sheesh.

AHAHAHAHA!!

eh??

skinny dawnie.. eat more please!!

aww.. smiley bear!

“seal aerobics”, apparently. hmpf.
i am faaaaat.

the soles of my shoes are hot pink too! hehehe. taken by dawnie!

me, taken by dawnie. zhan saw the shot. i miss taking photos with him because he can see shots that i’ll miss!

Going out to take photos with Zhan and maybe Dawnie tomorrow. YAY!

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… discovering really awesome Indian food (and satisfying my craving for good garlic naan), and having a (hopefully) awesome meal of ramen tomorrow with Melvyn!

*hops about* I miss that stupid jiao bin. HAHAHA.

It’s off to Bangkok this weekend, YAY!

Next week will be a mad rush of getting some freelance work done again, but we’ll deal with that when I’m back and happy and filled up with all sorts of wonderful cheap street food that I’ve missed!

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