Attending the HTC Touch HD launch party

Thu, 11 December 2008Sat, 12 December 2009 - Sheylara 17 Comments

A while ago, I attended a joint StarHub and HTC launch event for the HTC Touch HD and Touch 3G.

It was a Christmas-themed party at Supperclub!

Christmas tree

We were entertained by a Christmas caroling group.

Christmas caroling

I love Christmas carols. I used to go caroling when I was a kid and loved the rehearsals and the performing. Now, listening to Christmas songs always transports me to a magical realm of love and happiness.

Anyway, this a cappella group at the party was really good. Here’s a video of the singing… and the models!

I had the chance to play with the Touch HD but it’s hard to pay attention to something when you’re busy taking photos and videos. I never really like testing gadgets at events because there are always so many other distractions around.

All I remember is that the Touch HD is very pretty. Also, having the word “HD” in any name instantly makes it sound impressive.

HTC Touch HD

It should be impressive. It’s meant to be an iPhone killer.

Oops, don’t let Miss Cutie hear that.

Miss Cutie is my iPhone and I still love her!

(Well, don’t look at me. I didn’t name her. The Goonfather did! Wahaha.)

Georgina Chang was the host for the evening, looking resplendent in her glittery golden top, so dazzling that you can see only a white blur in my photos.

Georgina Chang

She didn’t adhere to the dress code of the party, which was black. Very naughty. But I suppose hosts have dress code immunity.

I didn’t have such immunity, so I dressed in black… and kind of blended in with the HTC models.

Can you spot me? *lol*

Sheylara and HTC models

And then I realised that the majority of the guests were not in black!

Guests

Sheesh.

I wanted to take photos of the food but they weren’t static. They kept moving about.

Food items were carted around on trays that night by waiters. I didn’t want to stress the waiters by making them stop in the middle of their routes to pose for photos.

Being so conscientious, I think I make a bad journalist.

But, well, I have more pictures of the models. That has to count for something.

Guests

And the mandatory underexposed, out-of-focus camwhore pic!

Guests

I was trying to be very subtle lah, so couldn’t spend a lot of effort getting a picture right. Since this wasn’t a blogger event, I was among people who aren’t used to the new age concept of camwhoring.

And I was already getting stares because I kept getting in the way of the models while taking videos of them showcasing the phone.

Maybe some people even thought I was part of the show, showcasing my camera, since I was dressed like the models, which wasn’t my fault because we were supposed to dress that way lor!

Ironically, while the organisers tried to get everyone to dress in black to look like the HTC phones, they went and dressed the phones in fancy colours, instead.

Guests

I find that amusing. But the phones do look quite appealing, even though I’m a proponent of simplicity.

Anyway, thanks to this party, I am now officially in the mood for Christmas! Will be playing my Jewel Christmas CD ad nauseum once again. Titled Joy — A Holiday Collection, it’s my favourite Christmas CD of all time.

I first heard Jewel’s Hark! The Herald Angels Sing in a Trans-Siberian Orchestra DVD (another favourite) and cried to that, which prompted me to buy her Christmas compilation.

Okay, that was quite a long time ago so I don’t want to make a big deal of it.

Oh wait, I found a YouTube video of that performance.

It’s such a beautiful rendition of a beautiful song.

If you’re wondering what’s up with the little girl standing awkwardly on the stage, this clip is part of a Christmas story about a girl who ran away from home and then decided to return after meeting an old man who takes her on a magical musical journey.

So, well… Merry Christmas in advance! Don’t wait to do your Christmas shopping!

Partying with cute models at Nokia Connection 2008

Sat, 21 June 2008Wed, 9 December 2009 - Sheylara 12 Comments

Nokia sure knows how to host a party.

I had to hastily buy a dress and a handbag just to attend it.

Dress:

With handbag:

I swear, it’s ridiculous how they expect us to fit anything in those tiny handbags.

People who know me know that I go around with a sports or duffel bag all the time.

Party clutch bags are absurb.

Honestly! After putting my camera and handphone in, I have no space left for anything else!!

What about my wallet? What about my house keys? What about makeup for touching up? Tissue paper? Blotter? Filofax? Camcorder? DS Lite? MP3 player? Drumsticks??? (Yes, I now carry my drumsticks around so I can practise on the go.)

I suppose you might argue that I don’t need to bring all these things to a party. You might be right, but I’d still say …*cue sinister music*… you never know.

I could invest in one of those all-in-one gadgets to combine phone, camera, video, gaming, music and organiser functions in one tiny sleek package that will fit nicely in my clutch and still leave room for my drumsticks… not.

But I still haven’t found a gadget that does everything adequately. For instance, what phone-camera-PDA-mp3-player can give me DS-standard games?

(Civilization Revolution is coming out on the DS!!)

That brings me back to the Nokia party.

I shall sum Nokia Connection 2008 up in one sentence:

Gorgeous models, exquisite food, free-flow alcohol, performances, impressive light show, immersive party venue, prizes, competitions and tons of latest and not-yet-released phones to play with!

Yes, there was even a BMW in there.

Unfortunately, it was such a fun and successful party that I didn’t have time at all to play with the phones much.

Yeah, so, I still haven’t found my dream all-in-one gadget to solve my handbag woes.

The party took place in giant domes at the Padang.

(I took this photo from PeepShow’s blog. I hope they don’t mind!)

It was futuristic and funky at the same time. Appealed to the party girl in me! Although I’m not much a party girl since I hate wearing party dresses and carrying party handbags.

This photo was taken at the start of the party when it wasn’t so crowded yet.

For comparison, this is about half an hour later:

Back to the start of the party, after I snapped a few photos, a lady come up and said, “Excuse me, but you’re not allowed to take photos because this is a private event.”

HUH??

You invite a blogger to your party and you don’t allow her to take photos! Siao lah!

Well, okay, the situation was that all photos and info of the phones were embargoed until the party officially started at 8 pm.

But there were no phones to take photos of because all the phones were covered up in large white sheets of cloth!!

So that’s why I don’t have any photos of all the wonderful food and all the wonderful drinks and alcohol. By the time the party started and I was allowed to take photos, I was kept busy partying and taking photos of the models!

Okay, brace yourself for tons and tons and tons of model photos (human and phone models, lol)!

The best (or worst?) part is that this isn’t even all of them. They were literally all over the place and, after a while, I couldn’t remember who I had photographed and who I hadn’t!

I love how they all wore different costumes to match the phones that they were modelling.

The official highlights of the night were the Nokia E66 and Nokia E71.

I had the chance to use the E66 because they were running a photography competition that night. We were supposed to use the new phone to take specific photos of the exhibits, and then, also using the phone, upload the photos to Share on Ovi, which is sort of like Nokia’s answer to Flickr.

The phones have inbuilt functions to upload directly to Ovi so it’s very convenient for camwhores.

This is what the Nokia E66 looks like:

It comes in silver, too, but I prefer the black. It’s cute!

This is the Nokia E71:

Also comes in black and silver.

Looks more businessy, not really my style.

At the event, they gave us a press kit comprising press releases and a thumbdrive containing hi-res images of the phones and accessories.

It’s a 2GB thumb! I have another to add to my collection now, yay!

It’s designed in the Nokia Connection 2008 theme but I think it looks like a lighter. Haha.

A little blue light comes on when you plug it in. Sweet!

Matches my CPU casing!

We also got matching shot glasses as a door gift.

No, we didn’t get any phones.

At least, I didn’t.

Oh, I should also remark that the makeshift outdoor restrooms were done up very nicely!

There was a very nice auntie there to hand us towels, but she was very camera shy and kept running off to hide when I whipped out my camera.

I got quite tipsy that night because the martinis were so deceptively tasty. They had apple, lychee and chocolate martinis! You just taste sweet, you don’t taste the alcohol!

Well, what can I say? Nokia hosts one heck of a party!

Bloggers attend CommunicAsia 2008

Thu, 19 June 2008Wed, 9 December 2009 - Sheylara 34 Comments

It wasn’t specifically a CommunicAsia thing. We attended the trade fair as guests of LG and Yahoo! so we only checked out those two booths.

(At least, I checked out only two booths because I had to rush off to drums class after the event.)

Now, I DECIDED TO BE SMART TODAY (technically yesterday).

I just knew that they were going to make us wear silly lanyards again, so I ditched my original idea of wearing a dress and went for casual grunge because I figured that grunge will go with anything, even silly lanyards.

I was right!!

We were all given a purple Yahoo! VIP lanyard.

[Nice going!]

Smooth!

It goes with my yellow belt!

[Sheynad]
Sheylara and nadnut

Here’s my whole outfit. (I’m hugging the gorgeous LG Secret.)

[Mine!]

I want to have one of these babies at home! Yes! I mean the giant phone! It’s not just a plastic display. It’s more like a very funky robot TV which actually moves. The phone slides up and down the screen plays a demo/trailer of the phone features!

Well, the phone itself is pretty nice. Like, I really like the name.

[Pretty sleek]

The PR manager of LG is a pretty Korean lady named Ja-Young. She gave us a five-minute demonstration of the LG Secret.

[Pretty sleek]

Five seconds into her speech, bloggers started taking out their cameras and snapping away at her.

I think it kinda stunned her for a bit. (I don’t think she’s used to bloggers, yet.) I saw the tiniest flicker of doubt and hesitation creep into her face as she was talking.

She must have been thinking, “Why are they taking pictures of me when we’ve got all these pretty LG models for them to take pictures of?”

LG models!

[Pretty pretty]

[Pretty models]

Speaking of models, I overhead this conversation at the LG booth between two men in business suits.

“Shall we check out the models over there?”

“Sure. *pause* Wait, which models are you talking about? The phones or the girls?”

“Er…! Hahaha. I meant the phones!”

“Hahaha!”

[Pretty model]

Didn’t know corporate people can be so funny.

Anyway, back to Ja-Young the PR manager.

She’s really sweet, and cool! She recovered quickly from the shock of being photographed in the middle of her speech and gamely went on. Then she even paused her demonstration for like 20 seconds to pose for us as we snapped away.

WTG!!!!

Her admirable performance makes up for the dodgy “refreshments” we were served at the LG booth while waiting for the tour and peformance to start.

[lolbiscuit]

We were given biscuits and sweets. The early arrivals also got a very sour lemonade to drink, which nadnut couldn’t drink because it was too sour.

The later arrivals got just water.

Maybe all their budget went into hiring those models and a team of spirited young Korean hip hop dancers.

[Still dance]

The dance performance was quite entertaining. And I REALLY love their costumes! They are LG Secret themed costumes but they look so funky.

I’ve got some video clips of the dance but I don’t think I’ll YouTube them cos I’m really busy today and I don’t think many of you will be interested to watch it, anyway. (Request if you want.)

Yay! I’m done talking about LG!

Now I talk about Yahoo!

I used to be a big Yahoo! fan until they screwed me over with some password problem, years ago.

I had been using Yahoo! web and domain hosting services for more than a year when, one day, I had a problem with my password and went through a lot of hell sending endless customer service tickets and even calling the USA in the middle of the night.

After that, I cancelled my account and started using Google for searches.

But, anyway, all that is in the past and I’m not one to bear grudges. I still do use some of Yahoo!’s services, like Yahoo! Groups. And it was actually a blessing in disguise because I have saved so much money over the years using a much cheaper hosting package!

So, anyway, the best thing about the Yahoo! booth is Ice Cream Chef!

YES THEY BROUGHT ICE CREAM CHEF TO COMMUNICASIA OMG!

[I scream]

This is the ice cream counter. I’m sorry it’s such a lousy photo but it was REALLY very crowded there and I didn’t want to get stuck in the ice cream corner with my giant goodie bags.

[Heavy duty]

We were all lugging all this stuff around the whole day and bumping into people nonstop.

LG gave us this giant LG Secret paper bag. Inside are two very small mobile phone catalogues and one even smaller accessory catalogue.

[Roflage]

ROFL.

Yahoo! gave us a black canvas sack bursting with goodies.

There’s a very nice laptop sling bag, a funky Yahoo! folder containing a press release, a notepad, a funny pen and a Yahoo! yodeler.

[Nice!]

The Yahoo! yodeler isn’t in this picture because the Goonfather took it with him to the office to annoy his colleague.

It’s a buzzer thing, kinda like those that people use in TV game shows to slap on when they want to answer a question.

When you slap the Yahoo!, it goes “Yahoooooooooooooooooooo!”. It’s very cute! So, of course, the Goonfather being the Goonfather, confiscated it right away. Duh.

We were all clumsily carrying all this stuff until one Yahoo! representative took pity on us and allowed us to dump all our barang barang at a corner, with one of the staff looking after them for us while we ran off to check out the new Yahoo! product.

It’s not actually a physical product, being more software than hardware.

We were introduced to this voice-activated search engine called the Yahoo! oneSearch, which can currently only be installed on the BlackBerry.

Basically, instead of typing in keywords, you speak them. You can say single keywords or ask questions like “Where can I get the best laksa in Singapore?”

[The purple man is hungry]

It seems to be quite accurate and the Yahoo! people claim that the program has been made to recognise Singaporean accents.

I tried to search myself, of course. I know Sheylara is not a dictionary word and not even a recognised word anywhere but I just wanted to see what the BlackBerry thought, so I said, “Sheylara,” enunciating very clearly.

It thought I was looking for a car so it started searching “car”.

I tried again, this time just saying it normally, and it gave me this result:

[kiss in the what?]

I don’t know!!! How does Sheylara sound like “kiss in the”???! Hahahaha.

Anyway, if you have a BlackBerry, you can check it out here. It’s a free service, so it’s quite worth giving it a try!

The oneSearch is part of Yahoo! Mobile, which allows you to install interesting widgets in almost any mobile phone to gain easy access to your favourite websites, such as Flickr, Messenger, MTV and, basically, any website that has customised a widget for Yahoo! Mobile.

Yes, that’s also a free service.

Nice going!

Okay, a couple more camwhore pics before I end this exhaustingly long post.

[Sheyangel]
Sheylara and ice ANGEL

[All girl group]
Bevy of female bloggers

Thanks to Princessa and Gavin for getting us invites to this event!

My secret infatuation

Wed, 18 June 2008Wed, 9 December 2009 - Sheylara 43 Comments

Argh, okay, I suppose it won’t be a secret anymore after I blog about it. Damn, bloggers have got no privacy at all!

So, I am now secretly infatuated with drummers. *blush* Well, alright, it’s only secret to people who don’t read my blog. But I don’t think any drummers read my blog so my secret is safe.

Yes, I’m infatuated with all of them! Um, okay, maybe particularly the good looking ones. A girl has to be discerning where she directs her infatuations.

It all started eons ago when I watched a Metallica tour video and noticed Lars Ulrich, who is not really good looking but his drumming more than makes up for it — he’s like the god of drummers.

[Lars god of drummers Ulrich]

Even now, after so many years of listening to Metallica, my heart still skips beats listening to him play.

So I’ve always sub-consciously enjoyed good drum grooves but never thought to take lessons myself until recently when I got influenced by Rock Band, which I know is a freaking lame reason to pick up any musical instrument, but that’s how it goes, so I am suddenly paying more attention to drummers. (I used to only have eyes for Lars.)

I saw this band on Monday night at Nokia Connection 2008 (an event which I will blog about another day because there’s so much info and photos to sort through)!

[They had so much fun]

After a cursory photo of the whole band, I zoomed in on the drummer, whose name is Edmund.

[He had so much fun]

He is so cool!

He’s using black Vic Firth signature drumsticks, how cool is that??!??! It is so cool!

[The audience had so much fun]

His drumming posture (I dunno what else to call it) is so cool. I mean, seriously, I have no other word than cool. Cool says it all, I’m sorry.

Edmund’s like the best-looking member of the band, so like I took a video! Heehee!

The Goonfather is going to kill me, of course, but… don’t care lah. If he can have his infatuations on cute Korean girls and Angelina Jolie, I can have my infatuations on drummers! Hehe!

Oh, video!

I didn’t catch him at his best moments but I was really quite busy at the event and this was the only moment I was available to stand there and watch.

The best part of it is that he’s entirely self-taught! I don’t know how these people do it!!!! How can anyone teach themselves to play like that?

I’m not in any position to critique drumming, so I shan’t comment on his skill. But I think he looks good and sounds good on stage, so it’s all good!

Apparently, all members of the band PeepShow are self-taught! Can you beat that? I am totally flummoxed. (I JUST FELT LIKE USING THAT WORD!)

Go check out PeepShow’s profile and blog and support the band because it’s cool to support local acts and these boys are actually pretty good (great music and great showmanship)!

[Hiding from the meepits]

They won some band contest in 2005 and have just released their first EP, which got good reviews in TODAY and Time Out. You can buy their album at HMV!

Best of all, they’re all so friendly and down-to-earth!

Yes yes yes… I spoke to them later that night (well, particularly Edmund, because he approached me because he saw me unabashedly taking videos of him). AND I CAN’T BELIEVE I FORGOT TO TAKE A PHOTO WITH THEM.

(I did have a photo with a couple of Nokia models, of which there were TONS that night. Look forward to seeing them in my next blog entry about the event!)

[Smiley people]

(I feel so short and dowdy sandwiched between them. And I’ve got that silly Nokia lanyard name tag which guests had to wear. I mean, it’s a nice lanyard, but it doesn’t quite go with my dress that night.)

So I forgot to take a photo with the band, bummer. (I think I had six too many martinis. There was a really mean martini bar at the event.)

No I’m not turning into a groupie. It just sounds that way. I’m not, really.

I’m just infatuated with drums! And drummers.

Maybe if I ever get as good as them (I mean the pros), I’ll stop being infatuated. Right now, they’re all amazing to me.

Until then, though, it’s costing me an arm and a leg to get there. Make that two arms and two legs. $50 a week for lessons + $50 a week to practise at the studio ($5.50 an hour).

That comes up to more than $400 a month!! I don’t even make that amount of money some months (told you I’m poor)!!

I think I’m going crazy. =(

Bloggers and models at LG KS20 launch

Fri, 14 March 2008Wed, 9 December 2009 - Sheylara 21 Comments

I love hanging out with bloggers because they do the most insane things.

Last night, the Most Insane Award went to Rinaz for performing the insane feat of conversing with herself over the phone.

(Incidentally, Rinaz also won an award I gave out last year, the Ping.sg Slackiest Latecomer Award. She’s a sly one, sweeping all my awards!)

A bunch of bloggers had been invited by Princess Sabrina to the LG KS20 (which is a mobile phone, in case you’ve been living in the sewers) launch event at Corduroy Cafe (VivoCity).

So, Rinaz was testing the phone by using it to call herself, and then actually having a conversation with herself. What a silly gal!

But I like!

I also liked the free food, the pretty long-legged models, the hanging out with bloggers and, of course, the LG KS20!

But I know you guys only want to see photos of the models, so here they are.

After a yummy buffet dinner, the girls were despatched to entice guests with the mobile phone. They went from table to table and allowed us to play with them (the phones, that is) while they stood by to answer questions.

Sometimes, a model was stuck at a particular table forever. As if the phone were that fascinating.

And then the video interviews started.

First, Rinaz video interviewed Claudia (and everyone else she could hijack) for feedback on the phone.

Then, Farinelli decided to get in on the act and starting hijacking people for video interviews, too. Nic was one of his willing victims, speaking at length about his first impressions of the KS20.

DK decided to be special and modelled the phone by reprising his famous face-on-table pose.

Original face-on-table photo by DK

I didn’t get the angle correct because I couldn’t remember what the original looked like.

All the bloggers were so thrilled that they made him stay in that position forever so they could take photo after photo. But he grew weary very soon and cheated by padding his head with his hand.

We were making such a big hooha that we attracted the official event photographer (behind DK), who came to take photos of this silliness.

And then came the highlight of the night, which, most of the time, is a lucky draw. Two phones were up for grabs, a KS20 and a KF600.

Pretty Estee won the KF600! What a lucky girl! The phone isn’t even launched in Singapore yet so she’s the very first person in Singapore to own that phone.