You get the point, I’m not really into this fashion / beauty stuff. I don’t know how to take full-boded self-shots (as you shall see from my awkward outfit shot later). I don’t consider myself to be trendy but I think I have my own distinct style and I try to dress appropriately for my body type. (Sorry, but I’m no size 0 and I’m also fairly short.)

Anyway, here goes my fashion / beauty entry.

The Outfit

I’m usually practical shopper. My wardrobe is neatly divided into a ratio of 5 work clothes : 2 casual clothes. But occasionally, I do fall into temptation and buy stuff I don’t know when or where I can wear it to — and this outfit is definitely one of them! It’s probably good for parties or clubbing, neither which I do much of, since I’ve overdosed on that as a teenager. I really, really like this outfit though so I’m gonna have to find an occasion to wear it.

• Sheer Mesh Yoke Dress from Forever 21, Spring/Summer 2010 collection
• Short Knitted Cardigan from Promod, Fall/Winter 2010 collection
• Booties from cotton.amour, a boutique at Orchard Central, Singapore. They order their stuff from Hong Kong and bring in very few pieces of anything. I had to book these a week in advance to get them.

The (Incomplete) Makeup

After I took the photo I realized I forgot to do my lips since I usually don’t. (Beauty blogger fail!) This eye make-up is quite a bit heavier than what I normally wear, but beauty bloggers and makeup artists would probably beg to differ. I used 3 shades of eyeshadow, a pencil eyeliner and a bit of mascara to get the eye effect. I have naturally thick eyebrows so I’ve never done anything to my brows before.

I also tried to contour my nose. I have the unfortunate ugly, round, flat Asian nose. I used some bronzer and highlighter to make it look sharper.

The Makeup Products

• Sunscreen: Biotherm UV Supra D-Tox
• Primer: Chanel Base Lumiere
• Mascara: Marjolica Majorca Lash Expander Frame Plus
• Foundation: Etude Precious Mineral BB Compact
• Bronzer: Sephora Bronze Powder (S10 Carribean)
• Blush: Smashbox Soft Lights (Tint)
• Highlighter: Chanel Irreelle Blush (23 Satellite)
• Light Shimmer Eyeshadow: Etude Petit Darling Eyes (BR301)
• Medium Shimmer Eyeshadow: iNuovi Colours D27 (06524 Mod)
• Dark Matte Eyeshadow: Smashbox Shadowbox Palette (Dark Brown)
• Eyeliner: Maybelline Unstoppable Smudge Proof (Dark Brown)

The Make-up Technique…

…not! I’m way too lazy and unskilled to show you a step-by-step so I’ll just leave that kinda stuff to the pros like Michelle Phan. So this brings us to the end of my foray into fashion and beauty blogging. Hah!

Dear Readers, what kind of shopper are you? What style do you think you have? Are you a make-up person? Why or why not?

I was so intent with seeking the answer to that question that I spent 4 years in college studying philosophy. I devoured everything from ancient greek to postmodern to find an answer that I could be satisfied with.

No, I didn’t find the answer I wanted from these classes. I ended up cracking the code through my own life experiences. A decade-long battle with an autoimmune disease made me realize that health and thus life itself is not determined by some invisible force — be it Adam Smith’s economic theory or fate. Much of health and life itself is determined by choice. My choice.

Fast forward to today, I accidentally caught the ending of the Matrix Revolutions on TV. I felt a decade of my life nullified as I heard the ending dialogue between Agent Smith and Neo:

Agent Smith asked: “Why, Mr. Anderson, Why? Why do you persist?”

Neo calmly (and as usual, expressionlessly) replied, “Because I choose to.”

So all this while the movie that got me all riled up on the meaning of life did answer the damn question! I just needed to pay more attention instead of deriding it as an anticlimactic ending to a beautiful trilogy!

The irony of it all.

In defense of the years spent reading everything from Plato to Locke to Lacan in search for the answer… I probably wouldn’t be the person I am had I not embarked on the quest to find the meaning of life. I also probably wouldn’t have arrived at my eureka moment had I not gained some philosophical and psychological insight into human nature. And I definitely wouldn’t have realized the significance of Neo’s last line (and my stupidity) had I not slogged through all those piles of books.

Irony aside, I now have another burning quest at hand: How should I choose to live my life?

As a 24 year old, I know I’m not quite equipped to find the answer yet. But this time, instead of consulting a bunch of long-winded old men, I’m just going to live my life to find out.

As I moved from one country to another, I gave away most of my toys . And now, at the age of 24, only one one remains. I could never bring myself to part with it. Perhaps because it’s the only toy I ever bought for myself. Unlike JJ, who gave her toy a name (I think it’s called White-Harp), I never did get around to naming mine. It came with the name Flip tagged to its ear, so I just stuck with that.

I bought Flip the last time I lived in Singapore, back in 2001. It’s a retired beanie baby. It was sitting on the window display at a toy store at Wheelock Place with a beautiful white coat and mesmerizing blue eyes that captured my heart. Now, almost a decade later, Flip still sits on my bed every night. Although its coat isn’t so pristine anymore, its blue eyes are still just as mesmerizing, if not even more.

So let me introduce you to Flip…

Dear readers, how did you find Toy Story 3? Did you think about your toys too? Do you have any favorites? Do share!

Photos first, enlightenment later.

Photos of Angkor Wat

This is the moat that surrounds the Angkor Wat temple at 5am.

This is Angkor Wat at dawn. The Cambodian skies are absolutely gorgeous. On hindsight, it’s probably not the sky that’s beautiful, but that it isn’t littered with skyscrapers like Singapore.

This is one of the towers of Angkor Wat. I took this shot from the inside of the building to give it a bit more perspective.

Another shot of Angkor Wat from the inside.

One of the hundreds (or was it thousands?) of depictions of Apsara at Angkor Wat. An apsara is a nymph. The Hindus believed that having pictures of apsaras will bring about good luck and ward off evil spirits.

A monk happened to be posing for a group of photographers as I was leaving Angkor Wat. What luck!

Photo of Ta Phrom

By the time we arrived at Ta Phrom temple, where Tomb Raider was filmed, I was so exhausted under the sweltering heat, I couldn’t be bothered to take photos. This was the only half-decent shot I took.

Photos of Bayon Temple

The amazing view that surrounds the entrance to Bayon Temple.

The entrance to Bayon temple.

Bayon Temple. This is probably the most magnificent temple of the three I visited at the Angkor Wat complex. I didn’t manage to visit the inside of this temple — not because it was under construction or anything…

…I was simply paralyzed by uneasiness as I approached the temple steps. Partially, it was fear. Due to an accident some years ago, I am afraid of heights. You could say that I’m trying too hard to rationalize my fear, but another part of the uneasiness came from a voice within. Something was telling me that I wasn’t ready to walk in yet. It was telling me that I spent all my time acquiring new skills to advance my career, strategizing the most efficient way to lead life that I had begun to neglect my spiritual and physical well-being. It was telling me that I had to learn to balance mind, body and soul before I could gain the right to step in.

So I’m taking life a little slower and trying not to suppress my soul so much. Hopefully, I’ll achieve that balance within this lifetime.

My Favorite Photo Taken in Cambodia

To end my entry, here’s my favorite photo from the entire trip. No post-processing was done.

This is taken at the Silver Pagoda complex at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh. I loved how the silver stupa blends with the silver sky. I felt a strong connection with the structure. I couldn’t really identify the feeling but it sure helped capture this shot.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I’ve enjoyed taking them! You can find more photos on my Flickr photostream.

So last week, I visited the Infocomm Accessibility Centre at 24seven‘s invitation. The centre is designed to help disabled people to train in infocomm technology, so they have a shot at employment.

The visit was an eye-opening experience for me as a web designer, because it puts web accessibility into perspective. Web accessibility is the practice of designing a web page that is accessible by the assistive technology used by disabled people.

For more photos, visit Selwyn’s Flickr set.

Here are some examples of assistive technologies. The yellow keyboard is designed to have a high contrast so that people who are partly visually-impaired can see better. And the trackball mouse and joysticks are designed for those who suffer from movement-impairing disabilities such as stroke or muscular dystrophy.

In my last 15 years online, I’ve met many bloggers — some who are disabled. I never really thought about how difficult it is for some of them to go online because it didn’t occur to me that they were using anything else but a normal computer or a mobile device. So to be able to touch and play with these devices really put things into perspective for me — especially as a designer.

Often, in a midst of designing a site or even just writing a blog entry, we forget or simply ignore the details such as putting a simple alternate tag on an image. As able people, we tend to forget that there are many others who never get to visually experience the wonders of our design or photos. All it takes for us, as bloggers or designers, is to spend an extra 10 seconds to write a descriptive alt tag so they could have a chance to imagine what we’re sharing.

And then there’s the debate between making a site more accessible vs cutting some corners for aesthetics reasons (such as using Flash or nonstandard code). I’d like to be fair here. I think it depends on your site’s target audience. If you’re designing a government, banking or utility portal, I think it’s important absolutely necessary to have an accessible site because these organizations are serving essential services to general public; they should strive to treat all their stakeholders equally. But if you own a small-time blog like I do, I think you can relax a little. You don’t have to painstakingly conform every single line of code to the standard, but it’s good aim at least for the bare minimum, such as minimizing the unnecessary use of tables.

Anyway, I hope this entry will inspire other web designers and bloggers to give more thought about web accessibility. Web accessibility isn’t about being a code nazi or being inflexible; it’s about respect. Respect for your readers, respect for humanity, and respect for equal access by all.

To check whether your site is accessible, go to cynthiasays.com.

So readers, what do you think of web accessibility? Is it important for you? If you’re a designer by trade, how do you persuade your clients on the importance of web accessibility?

PS: If you’re Singapore and you’d like to support the cause, join the mass tweet meet on 26 June. And if you know disabled people, please nominate them for a course at the Infocomm Disability Centre. These courses give those who otherwise may not have the opportunity, a chance to finally become a fully-contributing member to society.

Featured on Web Design Galleries

Big thanks to all the CSS galleries and web design blogs for featuring my latest theme, Nami. And another thank you to those of who gave me feedback, when I first rolled out this theme. Web design has been a long-time hobby of mine, so it’s always nice to receive recognition. I got to know many people as a result too! (I know I haven’t replied to some of you, sorry about that! Will get to it soon!) So thank you to CSS Mania, Spyre Studios, Web Creme and the many others!

Switched to a Smartphone

As I was saying in the Nexus One entry, I’ve been reluctant to switch to a smartphone since I didn’t want to become too connected. But my dumbphone recently lost the ability to send texts, and I was able to borrow the Sony Ericssion Xperia X10, so I switched. Thanks to the Xperia, I now sync my phone contacts with Google Contacts, which pretty much guarantees I’ll be loyal to Android phones for the next few years.

Since the phone isn’t mine, it doesn’t seem right to do a review. Hahaha! But let’s just say, despite its specs and price tag, it’s still got some way to go before I could classify it with the likes of superphones like the iPhone, Nexus One, HTC Desire, Motorola Milestone or the Samsung Galaxy S.

Touched an iPad!

Thanks to my colleagues and Justin, I got to spend some time with the Apple iPad. I wasn’t too impressed initially. It’s a phenomenal e-reader but there’s no way a tablet is befitting for a content creator like me. I have to admit my initial thoughts was slightly clouded by my disappointment with Steve Jobs and his letter to Adobe. (I switched to a Mac because Photoshop works better on it. So for Apple to declare its disapproval of Adobe’s alleged “closed system” felt like they were backstabbing a partner to me.)

But after I realized I could type a proper email on it without making mistakes, I was pretty impressed. As touch tech improves, tablets will slowly, but surely replace laptops in the future. With that said, I won’t be buying an iPad so soon. It can’t really replace a laptop or even a netbook for me just yet. I need multitasking support, and I don’t want to be held ransom by the App Store. Guess I’ll just wait until I see OS X or Win 7 running smoothly on one.

Sayonara, Social Media

On the work front, I’ve officially relinquished my social media responsibilities to someone even more passionate and capable. (That doesn’t mean I’ll stop blogging or tweeting though!) Social media was a good entry-point to the corporate world, since it was something familiar. I now do traditional comms for financial-related matters. It’s not an easy transition since the learning curve is fairly steep, the responsibilities are greater and perfection is just a minimum requirement. Nevertheless, I’m enjoying myself so far. I like being constantly challenged. Keeps me on my toes, keeps me learning. And it’s definitely the right place to be to learn more about the tech and telco business, both of which I’m pretty passionate about.

Thanks to the change, I can finally answer the question I’ve been struggling with for the longest time: “where do you see yourself in 5 years?” I’d like to move from a support unit like communications into the business. But more on this another time.

Upcoming Blog Posts

I attended a few interesting blogger events earlier this week, so do expect those entries to be up soon. There’ll be one on Nokia Connection 2010 and another on the Infocomm Accessibility Centre. I’ll probably disappear again after that because my boyfriend is coming back to Singapore this weekend! This time for good!

Okay, back to sleep. My fever is unfortunately still not subsiding. Blah.

The awesome part is that they’re not my usual style. For those who’ve not met me in person, my dress sense is very Calvin Klein. Solid. Black. Timeless.

And, boring.

Then I stumbled upon this pair and I knew I had to get it! It’s loud enough to complement my boring, black wardrobe.

New Shoes = Happiness!

What’s your sense of style? Do you ever get bored of your wardrobe? How often?

• want work life balance and a good pay
• can’t handle criticism – even constructive ones
• are flaky and disloyal to the company
• want to be CEO tomorrow
• have an overblown sense of entitlement

As a Gen Y, I have to admit that while some of these comments are quite accurate (especially the bit on entitlement), others somewhat suffer from over generalization. Sure, I welcome a better pay and a fast career advancement — sooner than later too. But I don’t expect it to be handed to me just for showing up on time. Promotions are always based on relative judgments. Compared to my older colleagues, I have one glaring disadvantage; I lack experience. So my way up is to take every opportunity to learn, volunteer for more challenging work, gain that experience as much and as quickly as possible…in hopes that I can do what older people can — but learned in a much shorter time and done in a much better fashion. And if that means I have to sleep in the office, so be it. I’m not naive enough to expect the big bucks, while I go home at 5pm everyday.

For every workaholic like me, I know someone who’s perfectly satisfied with his pay — as long as he gets to go home at 6 on the dot. In every generation, there will always people who live to work and people who work to live. So these career bloggers and columnists could really do us a service by not lumping our demands together because there are differences in opinion and even generational gaps amongst Gen Ys.

With that said, I’ve noticed a worrying trend amongst my peers. Many just don’t stay long enough in their jobs. And I don’t think this incessant job hopping is a good idea. It’s no secret that the corporate world demands some level of expertise. This job hopping is a sure fire way not to achieve that.

Personally, I’ve been fortunate enough to land on a job in a company with people I’m happy to work with and work for. I’m approaching 2 years and I still learn something new daily. It doesn’t have to be a big lesson like managing a multi-million dollar project. Most of the time, what I learn are small, seemingly insignificant things like saying the right things at the right time to give your team the moral support to do their jobs better. It is these small things that often turn a failing project on the road to success.

And sure, there are times when shit happens. If it doesn’t happen, I’m pretty sure it’ll find you soon enough. Shit isn’t a bad thing; it’s an opportunity to challenge you, to take you to the next level. It’s coming up with innovative ways to overcome this shit that’s going to gain you the experience you desperately need.

So I guess what I’m saying is that if you’re a Gen Y and you’re thinking about quitting, I’d like you to re-evaluate your reasons — especially if your reasons are along the lines of “I can’t take this shit anymore.”

Do share your views in the comments!

• If you’re Gen Y, what do you think? Do you agree with these career sites? Are there any common traits you’ve noticed about us?
• If you’re a manager of Gen Ys, what do you think of us? Do share because it’s a good opportunity to learn how we’re being perceived.
• And please, no personal attacks, no naming people. Thanks!

In the midst of my dilemma, Glenn from Ogilvy invited me to a blogger event to check out Canon’s latest line-up of cameras. Despite my hectic work schedule, I knew I just had to go. I mean, this event could potentially solve the dilemma of a lifetime!

So on Thursday, I found myself at the newly-opened Universal Studios Singapore. Canon introduced us to the zoom monster PowerShot SX210 IS, the sleek touchscreen-ed IXUS 210 and the pocket-sized IXUS 130. We were each given 5 hours with one of these to shoot around the theme park. The cameras were randomly given out. As a PowerShot fan, I was vying to test out the PowerShot SX210 IS. Thanks to Clauds, who offered to switched cameras with me, my wish was granted.

Before I start, here’s a few disclaimers:

• This is a very long entry. If you don’t like text, scroll down for pretty pictures and HD videos!
• To showcase photo quality, no photos or videos were edited.
• Click on the thumbnail for the full photo to appear in a lightbox.
• For more photos, visit my Picasa gallery.
• 3 bloggers with the most creative photos will each win one of the latest line-up of Canon cameras.

The Features

Here’s a first look at the features shared amongst the PowerShot SX 210 IS, Digital IXUS 210 and Digital IXUS 130.

Color Swap: Painting the town pink!

Color swap switches one color for another. Here’s how it works: point the camera on a color from your viewfinder, select it, then select a color you’d like to swap the first with. It’s like a real life eyedropper tool. (You photoshopaholics know what I’m talking about!) For these shots, I swapped brown for bright pink to paint Universal Studios pink! I had a blast shooting in this mode. I had to chase down this little girl with a pink bag (who was quite far away) to get the shade of pink I wanted. I was glad I had the zoom monster or I’d have to physically chase her for it.

Color Accent: Gold highlights

Color accent highlights a particular color, while the rest of the photo is in monochrome. I’m not very good with this effect but I liked how my golden Shrek castle turned out.

Miniature Effect: Toy world

This is my favorite photo effect! The whole world looks like a giant toy wonderland! There are more at my Picasa but here are my favorites:

Fish Eye: Distortion extraordinaire

HD Video Samples

The new line-up of cameras also shoots high definition videos. Select 720p to watch in HD.

HD video of Universal Studios Singapore

Here’s a 360 degree view of USS.

HD video of one of the rides

I was trying to keep this shot steady but it started raining heavily all of a sudden so I had to run for cover.

HD video with PowerShot SX210 IS’ 14x zoom

Zooming in on the fountain. It gets shaky in the middle; I was zoomed in so close that every slight movement had a big impact on the camera.

HD video with Color Swap

Painting Universal Studios Pink – The Movie! Yes, I’m 24 years old and I still ride carousels.

HD video with Color Accent

You’re gonna have to tilt your head to watch this. I shot this in portrait mode thinking it would auto-rotate like photos. Oops!

Sample Photos

Here’s a few more shots in various shooting modes. Read the description in the full photos for more details.

My Thoughts on the Canon PowerShot SX 210 IS

This is a great camera for those who need zoom power and want to have the flexibility to switch between a very smart auto mode and full manual controls. I can’t give this a proper review since I only spent 5 hours with it but here are my general first impressions.

What I Like

• Fast shooting speed and amazing image stabilization: I shot while walking and no photo ever came out blur — even in poor lighting!
• Long battery life: I’m not sure of the industry benchmark but compared to my PowerShot A590 IS (which runs on lithium ion rechargeable AA batteries) the PowerShot SX 210 IS is so much better! I took 180+ photos and 8 movies. I barely turned off my camera over the 5 hours and the battery was still going strong.
• One button movie mode: It was a breeze to shoot movies thanks to the dedicated movie button!

What I Didn’t

• Stiff mode dial: The mode dial is a little stiffer than I’m used too. I guess it’s more dSLR like?
• No indication for arrow buttons: This is minor, but unlike my A590 IS, the SX 210 IS didn’t come with pictures to describe each arrow keys’ function. So I had to struggle to find the manual focus, the delete key and the toggle between aperture and shutter speed. I guess this is only frustrating when you only have 5 hours with a camera that’s full of functions. I don’t suppose it’ll be a problem if you own one though.

So, I thought this event would help solve my dilemma between upgrading to an advanced point and shoot or an entry level dSLR. Unfortunately, it’s just made my life more difficult since I’ve grown quite fond of the PowerShot SX 210 IS. Sigh, what a geeky predicament to be in!

Dilemma aside, I had a splendid time thanks to Canon and Ogilvy!

Blogger Chicks Day Out

Once a month, Brenda, Dayna, Cherlynn, Teddy try to meet up to unite in our hatred for IE6 celebrate our love for blogging. For our March meet-up, Teddy unfortunately fell sick, leaving us ladies with no choice but to have a scrumptious lunch at Relax Bistro, followed by an afternoon of shopping (where I got an awesome Hugo Boss top for S$87!!) and comfort food for dinner.

Photos courtesy of Brenda and Dayna

For lunch at Relax Bistro, I had mushroom soup and my usual oh-so-yummy grilled chicken glazed with honey apricot mustard jam with a side of pumpkin puree.

Cousin’s Wedding at Thistle Hotel, Johor

Over the Good Friday weekend, I attended my cousin’s wedding in Johor Bahru, a small-ish town in Malaysia. It’s been over a decade since I last visited Johor and nothing seems to have change.

Anyway, here are some shots of my hotel room, some make-up I bought at a super discount and 2 of the 9 courses served at the wedding. The glutinous rice was apparently really good but I didn’t try it since grains are a no-no on my diet. Oh and there’s a rare photo of me looking very, very stereotypically Asian with monoeyelids. (I only get single eyelids when I’m heavily sleep deprived.)

Dinner at Serenity Spanish Bar & Restaurant

My friend celebrated her birthday at the Valencian restaurant last night. The food was pretty good but the wait for the main courses was way too long for someone who had a long day at work. And since it’s the type of cuisine that required everyone to share, this was one of the rare occasions where I had to deviate from my no-grain, no-processed-food diet.

For a name like Serenity, I was expecting the ambiance to be, well, more serene. As we walked in, we were greeted by loud Spanish music reminiscent of Enrique Iglesias’ and Ricky Martin’s numbers. But then the live band started playing, and the ambiance was finally there. They played an assortment of bossa nova and slow rock like Bryan Adams and Jason Mraz.

Appetizers

We were first served with sauteed garlic mushrooms with bread — which I didn’t take a shot of because I was famished — followed by bacon-wrapped asparagus and marinated pork skewers.

The bacon was a little too salty for my tastes but the marinated pork was pretty good.

Main Courses

30 excruciating minutes later, the first of our main courses finally arrived.

This is squid ink fideuà with a generous portion of squids, shrimp, capsicum and scallop. Fideuà is a paella with vermicelli. Since it was my first time trying fideuà, I was expecting to be wowed by some exotic tastes but it tastes just like rice vermicelli, which is a staple in Chinese cuisine. How anticlimactic!

After another 15 minutes and a reminder from the slightly miffed birthday girl, we were served Valencian paella. Now I’m no paella expert, so perhaps I’m too easily pleased, but this was good stuff! It had just the right texture — not too sticky like Japanese mochi but not too dry like Chinese fried rice.

Dark Chocolate Cake from Awfully Chocolate

Since the birthday girl has been itching to check out Awfully Chocolate, we got her a dark chocolate cake from there. It’s so good! It’s not very sweet and not too disgustingly rich and had just the right amount of chocolate!

This ends my rare food-centric photo entry! On a side note, I think I’m starting to take better food shots. Perhaps it’s time to get a new camera!