gadget3

I totally forgot all about this! I said I would post up my interview after the magazine is off the shelves, but it seems I’m a month late.

Gadget3

Click to enlarge interview page.

For those who can’t view graphics on my site for whatever reason, here’s the text version of the interview:

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An Xpert Opinion

One way that Microsoft is helping new players get comfortable with their online gaming service Xbox LIVE is the introduction of the Xbox Xperts. The first Xpert unveiled by Microsoft was the bubbly Sheylara, a gamer who made her name in the blogging community. We took her aside to ask her a few questions about being an Xpert.

What’s the role of an Xbox Xpert?

Think of us as something like community leaders. When new users join the world of Xbox LIVE, they might feel shy or not know what to do next or how to join in multiplayer games. So we’re there to welcome them, help them get settled, answer their questions and introduce them to the Xbox community.

What’s Newbie Nite?

Newbie Nite was something I came up with to ease new Xbox LIVE members into the multiplayer gaming scene. Many people join Xbox LIVE and face either of two problems immediately: They don’t have online friends to play games with, or they join a random multiplayer game and get thrashed by expert players who have been playing the game for ages. That can be quite unpleasant for some people and doesn’t give them a chance to experience everything that multiplayer gaming has to offer.

So, in Newbie Nites, I get a bunch of new members together and arrange gaming sessions for them. This allows them to make friends with people of the same gaming level. We have fun together online once or twice a week and it’s my hope that lasting friendships will form from these weekly sessions.

Do you feel like you’re a teacher, of sorts?

Haha, don’t call me a teacher! I think I’d prefer the word facilitator or, like I mentioned before, community leader. Sure, I’ve had to answer countless questions about Xbox and Xbox LIVE, but I don’t teach so much as share what I know. I like to think that, in the online world, we’re all sharing information and having fun together.

What’s the Xbox community like?

Like any other community, the Xbox community has all sorts of people in it. We have hardcore gamers and casual gamers. We have shy people and rowdy and fun-loving people. But, basically, it’s just a community of people who love gaming and who love gaming on the Xbox 360.

I’m also very heartened to report that most people in the Xbox community are very friendly and sociable. They love welcoming new gamers into the community because it means there are more people to play multiplayer games with.

Who are the new folks joining Xbox Live? What are they normally like?

They could be anyone, really. Some are people who have been playing on the Xbox for years and just recently decided to join Xbox LIVE. Some are people for whom an Xbox 360 was a birthday present, so they join Xbox LIVE as total newbies, maybe out of curiosity. Some of them learn about Xbox LIVE through the ads that Microsoft runs regularly through the media.

Most of the time, they’re pleased that there are Xbox Xperts onboard to welcome them and they do respond positively. In fact, I’ve made a lot of fast friendships with these new folks and we communicate regularly via Xbox LIVE messaging.

What’s it like to work with the new members? What are typical first impressions of the Xbox Live service?

It’s always a joy for me when I initiate contact with new members and they respond with a friendly message back. We don’t only talk about gaming and Xbox LIVE. Members also share with me about their lives, what they’ve been up to, and their other hobbies. It’s very rewarding for me when they treat me like a friend instead of some distant personality.

I think most of the really new users are surprised to have someone welcome them to Xbox LIVE and that encourages them to explore more. Some will feel overwhelmed initiatlly. That’s why the Xbox Xperts are in place to make sure they’re getting the full benefits of this service!

How does it feel to be an ambassador for the Xbox?

It feels great, of course. I feel truly honoured and touched. Yes, touched, because gaming is one of the most important facets of my life. I’ve been gaming since I was five. To be endorsing a product that is, basically, the very essence of me, means the world to me. It’s the most exciting and fulfilling thing that’s happened to me… so far! Having the honour of being a Gadget3 cover girl comes close! ;)

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Okay, that’s the end of the interview. Now, photos!

Gadget3 shoot
Larry (makeup artist) does my makeup while Sharon (stylist) does my nails.

Gadget3 shoot
Ash (hairstylist) blow-drying my hair, although I don’t know why he wet it in the first place.

Gadget3 shoot
Dressed for the cover. Larry touches up my makeup because the photographer said it wasn’t heavy enough.

Gadget3 shoot
Ash decides to tease my hair some more since I’m sitting there anyway.

Gadget3 shoot
Posing for the cover.

Gadget3 shoot
The cover shoot is an endless series of posing while different people come up to fix different things on me, like hair, makeup, clothes, prop, pose, etc.

Gadget3 shoot
Sometimes more than one person is fixing stuff at the same time.

Gadget3 shoot
Kelvin (photographer) shoots while Sharon stands by in case anything needs fixing.

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The final product of all that hard work!

Gadget3 shoot
Preparing for the next shoot (for feature spread). Hair and makeup have to be redone!

Gadget3 shoot
Group photo with the crew. If you find my face looking a little pasty here, it’s because makeup for professional lighting doesn’t show up well in compact cameras.

I have some photos I took of myself after this shoot, just to see how I look in my camera with the heavy professional makeup. Maybe I’ll post those up tomorrow.

I need to think about it because they look scary. Haha.

It’s not every day one gets to grace the cover of a magazine, unless one’s name were Angelina Jolie or, closer to home, Fann Wong.

So it was with a certain amount of anticipation — fine, an insane amount of anticipation — that I walked into a random bookstore in town to suss the copy out.

I couldn’t find it. I looked really hard.

At this point of time, the Goonfather sauntered in beside me, picked up a random magazine to leaf through, and asked, “What are you looking for?”

“Gadget3,” I said.

“Thereeeeee,” he said in that drawing, knowing way people get when they wish to, in just one word, convey the message that you’re a dimwit for not having known what they’ve known all their lives.

“It was the first thing I saw, behind the magazine I just picked up,” he added helpfully.

And so it was. Sitting there. My face on the cover of a magazine.

And the Goonfather still reading the other magazine he had picked up.

(It should be mentioned at this point of time that, prior to this incident, I had told no one, not even the Goonfather, of the fact that I was going to be a magazine cover girl.)

I glared at him accusingly, “I am on the freaking cover of the magazine. You didn’t even recognise me!”

He glanced at it and, without missing a beat, which is his trademark critical finish move, said, “Of course I knew.”

Liar.

This is the cover:

gadget3

To be entirely honest, I wouldn’t have recognised me if I hadn’t been at the shoot and seen what I had been wearing and holding.

It is quite, for the lack of a better word, flabbergasting.

We met up with Morte and Wang Wang shortly after.

I unceremoniously shoved the magazine in their faces.

Morte took a glance at it and said something inconsequential like, “Oh, you want to be a YouTube superstar?”

I rolled my eyes.

He continued to study the cover as if I had asked him to play “Where’s Wally”.

Before too long, his eyes lit up and he said, “Oh! Win a Samsung camera!! Er… Why would you want a Samsung camera?”

All this while, as I silently held the magazine out, at the same time trying to limit all eyeball rolling activities to within my eye sockets for health reasons, Wang Wang was peering at the magazine doubtfully.

When it seemed apparent that Morte was going to conclusively fail to locate Wally, Wang Wang piped in with a small voice, “Is this you?”

And then she frowned as if she wanted to take back the question.

A few more moments passed before she made a decision. She looked up from the magazine, straight into my eyes and asked, a little stronger this time, “Is this you??”

“Yes,” I said as I tried with heroic effort to manoeuvre my errant eyeballs back to their original positions.

“I almost couldn’t recognise you!” cried Wang Wang, looking somewhat delighted, whether over the fact that she almost couldn’t recognise me or over the fact that I have a mysterious dent on my nose, I’d never know, and would prefer to keep it that way.

There’s my first brush with magazine covergirldom.

There are more recognisable photos of me inside, and an interview, but I will only show you thumbnails of it for now because that’s the ethical thing to do. Please go buy the magazine.

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Other than the fact that I’m in it, it is a rather entertaining read. Honest! The March issue features many stories that are relevant and interesting to, um, us.

I also learnt belatedly from the Gadget3 website that if you purchase your magazine at any Kinokuniya outlet, you will get a free 4GB Kingston Class 4 Micro SDHC card (while stocks last).

Why, oh why, didn’t I buy my copy at Kinokuniya?

But what’s done is done.

I hope this will not be the last magazine cover I’m getting on because it doesn’t count when even your dearest friends, who have seen you in all kinds of disgusting states over the years, including without makeup and with too much makeup, can’t recognise you.

Sheylara

Keeping you amused since 2003

gadget3

My Gadget3 interview and behind-the-scenes photos

I’m a magazine cover girl, but