Archive for September, 2007
Spending money to torture myself
Fri, 7 September 2007 9:05 pmWho the hell charges $111 for a pair of running shorts?
WAH LAU.
I’ve been trying to find a decent pair of running shorts forever (like since a year ago) but nothing remotely decent ever turns up.
I tried again today because Run For Hope 2007 is next week and I need real running shorts.
I was filming at VivoCity today, so had a chance to shop around after the shoot. I went to Nike, Adidas, Puma, Fila and Mizuno. Out of the five sports stores, I only saw a pair that’s exactly what I’ve been looking for, but it turns out to be $111 (from Adidas’ designer range).
WTF. Who spends that kind of money on a stupid pair of running shorts? It doesn’t even have blings or exciting seams!
Unfortunately, that was the only pair of shorts that looked normal. The rest in all the stores were either too poofy or too long.
But I had to buy something, so I bought this Nike one that cost me $42.
It looks purplish-blue in the picture, but it’s actually dark grey. And it’s too damn long, but I have no other choice. It’s the most fitting I can find. I don’t know why they make running shorts so long these days. It looks so nerdy.
I ended up spending $200 on sports gear, something which would never have happened had my shoot not taken place in VivoCity! Grrrrr.
Besides the shorts, I also bought a Nike water bottle. And Adidas socks to wear with this:
That was an impulse buy. I had already planned to wear my ragged Nike shoes for the event and hope like hell that they don’t fall apart in the middle of the run.
But when I walked into Adidas today to find my illusive pair of shorts, my itchy feet took me to the running shoes display.
And then, this very friendly store assistant came over and managed to persuade me, by being very personable, to try on a few pairs of running shoes.
In response to my idiot question: “Running shoes got different types one meh?”, she very patiently educated me on the subject of running shoeology.
I was so impressed by the comfort, lightness and flexibility of this particular pair that I decided to buy it, despite the fact that I didn’t like the design that much.
I get 20% off Adidas products for being a participant of this year’s Great Eastern Women 10K and the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, so that helped.
Now, I feel superbly ready to face my first race! I shall endeavour not to come in last without killing myself. I think I should be able to manage that, but it’ll be tough. I haven’t been training much in the last six weeks or so.
I don’t know what I was thinking, signing up for three races, spending over $100 on registration fees to torture myself! And even more money on gear to endorse that madness.
Madness!!
I kinda regret signing up because I am so not prepared to run competitively, and I am not prepared to disgrace myself.
On the other hand, I need these events to motivate myself into running regularly for health and fitness. Otherwise, I’d just totally embrace couch-potatohood and turn into a permanent blob of slime.
Not a very pleasant image. Therefore the necessary expenditure to further the cause of self-torture.
I must be crazy!
As if I don’t already receive enough (mental) torture from the one and only Goonfather.
He took one look at me walking around proudlly with my new shoes and he said, “You wear nice nice expensive brand new shoes for your race… later you lose, very malu one you know?”
Behind the scenes of Microsoft media event
Thu, 6 September 2007 10:54 pmI was a photo opp today.
What’s a photo opp?
Short for photo opportunity, it means I was a decoration piece for photographs. You know, like how, when you go to the zoo, you get to take pictures with a pony or a snake or Ah Meng, and then bring the photo home as a souvenir?
Microsoft hosted a media party today to introduce some new products, not the least of which is Halo 3.
When I arrived at Fashion Bar, where the event was held, the product models were rehearsing their parts in showcasing cool stuff like keyboards and mice.
Master Chief was at the back, being helped into his armour.
Since no one was free to take photos for me, I took it myself.
I must say my photography (camwhoring) skills are improving quite drastically.
Today’s job was easier compared to the other Halo 3 launch events I’ve blogged about.
Well, it certainly doesn’t take very much to be a photo opp. Even a pony or a snake or Ah Meng can do it, right?
First, we paraded and preened to impress the press.
Then, we marched on to the photo corner, where they’d set up an instant shoot-and-print service.
Interested parties came forward to pose for pictures with the three of us exhibits, and then the photos were immediately printed out and stuck on Halo 3 photo frames for guests to bring home.
Pretty cool, eh?
We were there for two sessions. First session was for press, second was for retailers.
In between sessions, we took photos for ourselves. Aren’t the models’ costumes cute? Of course, the models themselves are very cute, too, which is why I arranged for this group picture to be taken.
Events like these are really quite fun. Of course, I would much prefer it if there were actual acting involved. Well, I did try to act like a badass UNSC Marine while parading around, so I guess that’s better than nothing.
After all these events, I’m getting quite hyped up about Halo 3 myself. I hope Microsoft gives us a copy of the game when it launches because I want to play it! ;)
My physical acting journal
Wed, 5 September 2007 10:53 pmSometimes, I encounter incidents in my acting career which I can’t mention in public because it might offend people or get me into trouble and kill my career before it even starts. Haha.
So I bought this pretty notebook to write in.
I used to keep a physical diary during my emo days. Then I sort of outgrew that phase and the diary wasn’t needed anymore. Then, blogging came into fashion.
But I still love manual writing. I love collecting notebooks, especially stylish, pretty or bling ones, and I love writing in them.
Sometimes, I write rubbish just to fill up pages for fun.
Because I was so eager to write something in this sweet little notebook, I just sat down and started writing without knowing what I was going to write, and this bit of nonsense popped out.
Yeah, it’s quite irrelevant, but irrelevance is one of my 2,764 middle names. Rubbish is another one of them.
Now I have a physical acting journal to complement the digital one in my blog. Yayness.
Master Chief gets dressed on the bus
Tue, 4 September 2007 8:03 pmIn the media business, a bus often doubles up as a dressing room for actors and models, particularly if there aren’t any toilets nearby, or if the cast is supposed to be kept out of public view until the performance.
Such as in this situation.
Master Chief is not supposed to show his face (without his mask on) in public so he has to get dressed on the bus!
We’re gathered on a bus this day to spring another of our Halo 3 launch events on an unsuspecting shopping mall public.
Between performances, the marines wait in the bus restlessly.
Some of us take the opportunity to camwhore.
And to take illicit pictures of Master Chief getting dressed by the stylist.
Of course, Master Chief, being Master Chief, didn’t take very long to notice such illicit spying activities aimed at his eminent self.
In response, Master Chief obliged us with a fearsome pose!
How magnanimous!
And that’s all for illicit bus activities today.
I don’t have pictures of the event itself since I can’t very well be taking pictures while I’m at work pretending to be a UNSC Marine stationed in a shopping mall to recruit brave humans to help save the world from invading aliens.
But you can view event pictures here.
