Are film adaptations of books a good thing? - Lizzie Chan

Reliving the journey you’ve experienced when you flipped through the musty pages of books on the silver screen can be a golden opportunity for you to feast your eyes on fantasy – or just another golden opportunity to get your imagination crushed. Sounds familiar to you? Well, this ordeal is definitely common to Lizzie Chan, a geeky girl who spends her time reading through dusty books and watching movies.

With the technology we have developed today, books can be turned into movies in an instant. Some of these film adaptations are definitely worth watching but there are also some that make you want to scoop your insides out.

Take Harry Potter for instance. I am a huge fan of Harry Potter but if I have to pick between the films and the books, I would pick the latter without a single doubt. The truth is, I do enjoy watching it on screen but the films lack the oomph the book possesses. Watching Harry and his cohorts running through the Forbidden Forest was definitely not the way I pictured when I read it. Film adaptations murder our imagination skills because they deter us from thinking out of the box by providing ready-made visuals for us.

Most film adaptations can never fit the whole storyline of the book in it. If they were to do that, you would have to sit through more than five hours of Lord of the Rings, instead of their usual three hours (not that I am complaining but some people cannot sit through that). With that in hand, some of our favourite parts in the book would not make it into the film, therefore it would ruin the storyline for us personally.

However, not all film adaptations are a bad thing. Although they might rob the imagination of the creative audience, they actually provide an avenue for those creativity deprived to enjoy the story as well.  Look at Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for example. The vast world of candies they created from the depths of Roald Dahl’s book offers a look into Willy Wonka's factory to those who are not able to visualise it as they read.

Besides that, film adaptations also provide a wider audience because people nowadays do not read as much as they should. With that. they can enjoy the storyline like those who read the books (although not as much).

Verdict:  Personally, I never had a thing for movie adaptations of books because I think it kills the main objective of reading. Why would you want to see your favourite books in someone else’s perspective when you can perceive it your own way in the comfort of your own home?

Next Week:  Film Adaptations of Books - How Do They Do It?

The kinda learning you can’t get elsewhere - Susanna Ng

Amongst the different kinds of learning processes, learning from the world is the best. In this column, Susanna Ng, an amateur backpacker explores life's lessons while conquering the world one step at a time.

Living and learning in a red-light district.

by Susanna Ng.

I cautiously made my way through the crowd lugging a huge backpack on my shoulders, looking for the right platform in Central station that would take us to King Cross - a red light district in Sydney where we were to spend the next three days.

            Thankfully, there were plenty of seats in the double-deck train. Stepping out of the underground station, a bustling atmosphere greeted me. This was the King Cross, the red-light capital of Australia famed for drugs, strip clubs and drinking.

            The job at hand was to find a place to stay and of course, when you’re a girl who budget travels, you look out for funkiest and cleanest hostel. Guided by a Google map print-out of the roads in King Cross, we checked into a 6-person dorm with two British guys moments later. For girls out there who want to budget travel, get used to living with guys as you’ll find yourself outnumbered most times.

            As night fell, we took a train to the city centre to get a glimpse of the Sydney Opera House. It was a nice walk through the city despite the strong wind and drizzle. The day ended with an experience of culture shock knowing exactly what prostitutes in King Cross wore under their short skirts. Nothing.

            We awoke to a blanket of mist and dust the next morning. I clearly remember wondering if people in Sydney ever washed their cars. Every vehicle we passed was almost covered by brown dust.

           

            The day was spent visiting Chinatown, Darling Harbour, Star City, Luna Park and the Olympic Park by foot and public transport. It was a whole lot of walking!

We arrived in King Cross just when all the action was about to start. Walking through the streets at night where drunkards, drug dealers and prostitutes lingered around definitely forced a certain amount of awareness and street smarts.

Our final day in Sydney was spent on a road trip to Bankstown and the famous Blue Mountains – home of the Three Sisters; a natural wonder.

It was at the Three Sisters that I truly felt the pleasure of being able to see another piece of the world.

The experience of living minimally in a red-light district amongst people of diverse backgrounds is definitely a learning process which teaches survival skills and acceptance of true humanity. More importantly, it forces one to look at life and the world from bottom up. It is a lesson of reality that you might never get elsewhere.

 

-end-

Next week: City camping in Gold Coast - Close to nature, close to civilization.

Cone Pizza - Pizza on the Go

Abdullah bin Izzudin

Round, square, thin and thick – yes, pizza’s these days come in many different forms. The writer enjoys eating pizza and the very thought of it makes his mouth water. He is on a mission to taste the very best of pizza’s the world has to offer. In this three-part column, Abdullah will share his gastronomical experience in whats “in” and whats “out” to ultimately find that perfect piece of pizza.

Cone Pizza – Pizza on the Go

Pizzas around the world have come a long way in how they are made these days. Traditionally, they are prepared and served to be consumed in the restaurant or brought back at home.

Interestingly enough, I had the liberty of coming across a new breed of pizzas in Kota Damansara recently, at the Italian Cone Pizza. The idea of creating a pizza in the form of an ice-cream cone is simply ingenious.

The cone of the pizza is made out of the bread crust of a usual pizza while the toppings are added into the cone. Once sufficient toppings of meat and tomatoes are added into the cone crust, and overload of mozzarella cheese is just filled into the nocks and crannies of the insides of the crust. But don’t take a bite a bit too quickly as both the cheese and tomatoes are runny and piping hot!

A few minutes in the oven, and you would have gotten your fresh, hot pizza in the convenience of a cone and is readily edible anywhere and at anytime. As a pizza lover, I find this a work of art as I can now enjoy the mouth-watering taste of pizzas while being mobile to do everything else.

Italian Cone Pizza's Margherita, served simply with hot piping mozzarella cheese.

Italian Cone Pizza offers many different flavours for their pizzas and some of their popular one’s being Classic Chicken Pepperoni and Beef Supremo. However, Italian Cone Pizza tries to be more creative by making “sweet” pizzas like Chocolate Banana where they slice bananas and top it up with chocolate sauce. This idea kind of really makes the pizza literally be just another ice-cream and I would rather go to an ice-cream shop for that.

Overall, Cone pizza’s are definitely a breakthrough in the pizza-creating industry by making pizzas on the go. Cone pizza’s will definitely pave the way to many more pizza creations in the future, and I am pretty excited about that. A bit on the Italian Cone Pizza though, it can be considered to be quite costly for a small average-cone size pizza that cost about five times as much as an ordinary cone ice-cream. Believe me, once you’ve tried a Cone pizza, one will never be enough!

Next Week: Think Cone pizza was creative enough? Check out my next article on a delicious upcoming type of pizza that will surely stimulate your taste buds.

Three Ideas for the Column:
1. Cone Pizza
2. Pie Pizza
3. The Ultimate Pizza

Column - Week 1.

The Four Letter Word, a weekly column by Farah Ashraff

From a small dusty town of Klang, one girl strives to spread the hope that love could still be the superhero that would save this planet. For 21 years, Farah Ashraff have been observing how love is used as an armor, abused for lust and power and confused under the deceit of material desire and believes that we should all try a little harder to give love a little credit. That is exactly what she would be doing in this first article on the series of column she would like to call ‘The Four Letter Word’.

THE NEW FOUR-LETTER-WORD

            The ever so famous four-letter bad word has finally found its match; love and al though it is a newcomer for words that are hard to say and what society deemed inappropriate to mention, it is climbing up the chart pretty fast. In fact, we now utter the four-letter-word more than we do love without thinking twice. Which is funny because isn’t love supposed to be a good word?

            Society today seems too afraid to talk about love, it has become sort of a taboo and it makes people uncomfortable at the mere mention of it. It shows that the more advance we become the more inarticulate we are when it comes to expressing such a crucial emotion. No wonder divorce rates are escalating every year, we do not talk about what we are getting ourselves into.

            Take movies for example, how long does it take for the main characters to confess that they love each other? When they finally do, how hard is it for them to get it right? Most of the characters get into bed together even before they start to figure out if they actually have any form of emotional attraction to the other person. As the media is one of the most powerful forms of influence to society, movies would in fact impact us and our children to think that it is okay to do so.

            In the end, the bigger question is, is it okay for society to accept that we put the four-letter bad word ahead of love? Because if it is, we might as well accept in unison that love should be the new four-letter-word.  Al though I would like to think that we are human beings and are complex enough to deal with an emotion like love as a priority. As many had quote before us, “Love makes the world go round”, hopefully, in this generation, it still does.

Catch Farah again  next week as she will be talking about how our fast-paced era have turn relationships to be almost similar with technology – fast, packed with features and replaceable after a short period of time. Would love be able to conquer technology or will it be the other way around, log on to www.thestar/columns/thefourletterword.com to tell us what you think.

           

Drumming – It’s Not THAT Hard… Right?

by Jc Lam

It’s easier than it seems actually, once you get the hang of it. Well, I mean playing the drums that is. Sure, it involves technically more movement of more body parts than any other basic instruments there is (guitar, saxophone, and piano to name a few), and yet, to me at least, basic drumming seems a whole lot simpler than playing those other instruments.

    Just take both your palms and start hitting on your lap while in a seated position, one palm after the other in a fashionably traditional and (hopefully) consistent manner. There you have it! You’re basically playing a simple drum beat. Of course, on a drum, we do it with a pair of drumsticks instead.

    Then again, once you’ve got the basic down, (how to hold the sticks, the positioning of your feet and etc), all that is left to do is regular practices and the technical know-hows.

    Alright, with that in mind, let’s hold that thought and go into some technicality in drumming before we get too far ahead of ourselves. After all, the first thing you do learn about, say, a guitar is about its strings – what they are, what they’re made of, what different sounds they make and so on. So, what about drums?

    Well, the first thing any drum teacher would ask you on your first lesson would be, “do you know what a drum is?” And if your answer is a ‘no’, you’d might as well get your big behind out of the room as quickly as you how should’ve stopped reading this article by now.

   

     I’m just kidding.

    A drum is conventionally any hollow container with its two open ends covered (similar to a water drum). On the percussion, however, a drum is not just that. A standard drum set consists of up to four of those cylindrical drum thingy, each producing different sounds and for different purposes.

    You have the snare drum, the tom-tom, the floor tom, and the kick or more commonly known as the bass drum. The snare generates the high pitch volume while on the contrary, the bass drum produces the low, punchy bass lines. It is usually these two that are coupled together into creating the whole works of a drum beat. The toms are usually for additional fill-ins in a basic drum beat.

    But unlike any other musical instrument, the drums also have, well – let’s just call them accessories. No drum set would be complete without some of these accessories and yet, you can remove or add more of them as you please as well.

    Some of the basic accessories for a drum set are the hi-hat, the ride cymbal and the crash cymbal. As always, they are used in different occasions but it is the hi-hat that is usually paired with the snare and bass drum to further enhance the sound of a beat.

    And now, with these general knowledge of what a drum set really is, you would’ve had taken your first of many steps in learning how to play the drums!

Next week: Finally! Are we learning how to play the drums now? 

Here comes Mickey -Min Kim DMC08

When you think about cartoons, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? It will be highly chance that everyone will provide different answers for this question. What if is about Walt Disney cartoons? The answer is mostly Mickey Mouse! Yes, I am talking about the mouse that stands with two feet. Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character and also an icon for the established Walt Disney Company. Today, you see a colouful, talkative mouse on television. What about its origin? Have you even thought of that? Today’s column will be about Walt Disney cartoon's first stage of evolution - Mickey Mouse during 1920’s (black and white)
 
During those days, the cartoons were not as attractive as now. Let’s go back to the past and take Mickey Mouse as example. Mickey Mouse appeared on television in 1928 and there were no colours on screen and sound yet. The first two Mickey Mouse cartoons, Plane Crazy and A Gallopin Gaucho were a silent short co- directed by Walt Disney. Mickey Mouse was then made his screen debut in Steamboat Willie, the world’s first synchronized sound cartoon. In this cartoon, Mickey Mouse yet to speak. In fact, Mickey Mouse started to talk in The Karnival Kid on July 31, 1929.


Comparing the recent cartoons to those we watched on televisions or in cinemas, the cartoons back then were portrayed in a much simpler format. Can you believe that Steamboat Willie’s running time was only seven minutes? The cartoon’s storylines were also short and easy to understand. Mostly the cartoons were about Mickey Mouse protecting Minnie Mouse from a bad character name Pete.


The Band Concert was first Mickey Mouse cartoon in colours. It was released in 1935.


Next, it will be about Walt Disney cartoon's second stage of evolution - colour cartoons! Since when Walt Disney's cartoons turned from black into colour?Stay tuned.

By: Min Kim, DMC08

=================

Editted version 

When you think about cartoons, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? The chance will be highly that everyone will provide different answers for this question. What if it is about Walt Disney cartoons? The answer is mostly Mickey Mouse! Yes, I am talking about the mouse that stands with two feet. Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character and also an icon for the established Walt Disney Company. Today, you see a colourful, talkative mouse on television. What about its origin? Have you ever thought of that? Today’s column will be about Mickey Mouse’s evolution during 1920’s

During those days, the cartoons were not as attractive as now. Let us go back to the past and take Mickey Mouse as example. Mickey Mouse appeared on television in 1928 and there were no colours on screen and sound yet. The first two Mickey Mouse cartoons, Plane Crazy and A Gallopin Gaucho were a silent short co- directed by Walt Disney. Mickey Mouse then made his screen debut in Steamboat Willie, the world’s first synchronized sound cartoon. In this cartoon, Mickey Mouse has yet to speak. In fact, Mickey Mouse only started to talk in The Karnival Kid on July 31, 1929.

Comparing the recent cartoons to those we watched on televisions or in cinemas, the cartoons back then were portrayed in a much simpler format. Can you believe that Steamboat Willie’s running time was only seven minutes? The cartoon’s storylines were also short and easy to understand. Mostly the cartoons were about Mickey Mouse protecting Minnie Mouse from a bad character name Pete.

The Band Concert was first Mickey Mouse cartoon in colours. It was released in 1935.

Next, it will be about Walt Disney cartoon's second stage of evolution - colour cartoons! Since when Walt Disney's cartoons turned from black into colour?Stay tuned.

Pimple Buster

You have done a lot to prevent the overgrowing pimples on your face. What are they actually? Pimples are oil glands that are infected with bacteria, got inflamed and has pus. The oil glands produce sebum and each day, your skin sheds its outer layers and if they are left in the pores together with the sebum, it causes clog pores. This phenomenon is most likely to happen when you reach puberty when the oil glands are most active. Pimples are not contagious but it could be hereditary.

SLOUGH OFF – Though it is good to help skin to dissolve the dead skin cells in order to aid the skin renewal cycle which normally take about 20 to 28 days, depending on your age because as you aged, the process will be slower. Excessive exfoliating will only do more bad than good despite being told that scrubbing your face daily will keep your pores clean and clear. The truth is, scrubbing too often makes your skin more prone to sensitivity and dehydration as it gets thinner each time you discard the outer layer of your skin! If you ever notice, besides dry and sensitive issue, your skin tends to be lacking of radiance, giving you a dull complexion. If you must scrub, choose a fine one and do it gently once or twice a week or use an exfoliating mask that contains enzymes.

24/7 HYDRATION – You should not neglect this vital step in your daily skincare regime. A lot of you may think that since you already have pimply skin which naturally leads to oiliness, you do not need to moisturize it. Now, the thing is, oil and hydration are not the same. Your skin tends to produce more oils to compensate the lack of moisture in your skin. Thus, hydrating your skin is essential. Use lightweight moisturizers or oil-free ones.

WATCH YOUR DIET – Although there is no significant evidence to prove that food and acne are related but from research, the worst pimple causing food around is the vegetable oil. This normally applies for those who are having pimples or genetically prone to pimples. Contradicting with people’s belief, vegetables are good source of fibers and vitamins but the oil derived from them is bad. Avoid cooking using vegetable oils and you should look out for which other food that you usually consume and contains vegetable oils if you want to get rid of pimples!

Next Week: Everything you need to know about eyebrows.

What do you do when you have a constraint budget to do your shopping? Li Chuen is a self-proclaimed shopaholic who spends most of her time shopping and surfing the net for the latest fashion. She has the tendency to buy things which is unnecessary and would end up broke by the end of the month.

Shopping with a budget

The ever changing world of fashion makes it impossible for us to keep up with the trends at times. Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter season is when most of the designers will come up with new collections that will influence the fashion trend worldwide.

Purchasing many apparel at once is a common habit of women and we would sometimes regret splurging so much yet we still repeat this cycle every single time without fail. At the end of the day, piggy banks will be emptied, coins will be fully utilized to support our daily expenditures such as food and petrol.

Being caught in such situation, a budget would be the best idea to help us manage our money. But will it? Some of us might think it does not help at all and in fact, it might make things worse. By setting a budget, we have more control of knowing what we can or cannot afford. 

Here are some pointers for managing your budget.

• Have an additional bank account or have a petty cash box that is solely for your shopping expense.

Do make it a habit of setting cash aside so that you'll be able to live through till the end of the month without surviving only on bread and water. By doing so, we can learn to control our spending and buy what is necessary.

• Buy what you NEED not want

Hold your eyes rolling for now. I'm sure that most of you have heard this phrase repeated everywhere but I couldn't help myself to reinforce it once again. Seriously, deciding which apparel you need is important as it can affect your whole wardrobe. Like everyone else, we would end up buying things that we want instead of what we need thus making it hard to find a particular accessory or apparel to match the outfit.

• Go for SALES!

Although it's a gimmick to attract customers and boost sales, we still benefit from the discounted prices as we pay a cheaper price compared to the usual marked up price. You could also get more in terms of quantity than paying twofolds for things such as a simple top. Besides that, vouchers offered during sales season can be saved to purchase more items in future.

-End-

Sneak peek for next week: What to do with clothes sitting in your closet?

Friendship

by Cayman Yong
(DMC08)

"There is nothing on this earth to be prized more than true friendship." This is a true friendship quote by St. Thomas Aquinas. Aside from romantic relationship, friendship is another important relationship in life. Yes, we do have our close and distant family to be our true friends because they will never leave us. But the truth is that we all depend on our friends for comfort, inspiration and support. In life, we all have friends. These friends are someone we build relationship with, which leads to friendship. Everyone wants to have true friend, and many of us know that we have true friend in life. But, do you know who your true friend is? When do we recognize our friend as true friend? When do we take our friend as true friend? In this week column, I will talk about true friend and how we do we recognize them as true friend.

Part 1 : Who Is Your True Friend?

#1 : A true friend is the one who always believe in you no matter what happened. When no one believes you, there is always one person in life who will always and continues to believe you. This person is the one who back you up with real and true facts to those who talk behind your back. When an argument occurs between you and someone, this person will always be there for you and comfort you.

#2 : A true friend is someone who you can always be real to. You can always be true and speak everything from your mind without worrying what your friends might think about you. You can never worry about exposing the real self to them. If your friends get offended and misunderstood your sayings, then you can just leave them because in the end the friendship will be broken. This is because they do not understand you for who you are.

#3 : A true friend is someone who finds no excuses to help you when you are in need. In time of needs, a true friend will always be there for you and support you when people around you are against you. A true friend will not take the opportunity to destroy you and pull you down, but instead will help you through all the tough time and seasons in life. Having this true friend is like having a mother. A mother will always be there for her children whenever the children are in need.

Conclusion, if you have a true friend who fulfills the 3 traits, then do call yourself blessed and lucky, because you know that this true friend will always be there for you. If you are not a true friend to someone, then learn to be one from today onwards. Above all, learn to be a true friend to yourself first before you expect others to be your true friend(s).

Next week topic : How to tackle misunderstanding between you and your friend?

Toddles!

Signing off now,

Cayman

world cup. by alex

Alex DMC08


WORLD CUP 2010: BORING MUCH?

Alex is a football fanatic who craves for football since his younger days. He plays football since junior high and never fails to keep up with the World Cup. He would usually be thrilled when the World Cup season arrives but this year, not so much. Here is an article of him breaking down the key points on why this year’s World Cup will not be as shining as the previous ones.



  Once every four years, everybody around the world would gather and be excited when the World Cup season arrives. Traditionally classic matches will always be on the cards to thrill the audiences in the world’s biggest stage of soccer. But this year, statistics show otherwise. Not only the world’s biggest stage is losing some big guns in the opening group matches, some did not even manage to qualify for the World Cup, which makes the ratings much lesser compared to the previous ones.


  Usually, we would expect all the big guns to qualify at least to the group stages but this year, a few big names were missing from that list. Most notably from that list is Russia and Turkey, semi-finalists of Euro 2008. Other notable big names that failed to qualify were Czech Republic, Croatia and Sweden. All the big names mentioned above has always been consistent qualifying for the World Cup and them not there is a huge blow to the competition as fans would love to be thrilled if there were tight competition.


  As we progressed into the group stages, more big names begin crumbling with the likes of Italy and France being knockout. Italy and France, the 2006 winner and runner-up, was thrown out of the competition in unspectacular fashion. Both teams went out without winning a single group match. In my opinion, both teams were playing inconsistent football and them flying home is another major blow to the tournament. We should have at least seen both teams trying their best to defend their title or at least avenging the defeat in 2006. But both teams were a letdown and nowhere near their previous team.


  We were all hoping for exciting ties for the knockout stages but now even the previous cup winner and runner-up being knocked out, the tournament does not look as shining as it use to be. Even so, there are still many big guns that qualified to the next round and let’s hope we would enjoy the rest of the World Cup. 




Stay tune sport fans for the next installment on Alex's professional analysis in who will win the World Cup!

So you really think you are NORMAL?  

by  Filzah Sobri  DMC10

Part I

Let’s face it.  Most of us think like to believe that we belong in the ‘normal’ group.  So, what really is normal?  As Whoopi Goldberg put it - ‘normal’ is nothing more than a cycle in a washing machine. For me, normal is a term for zombies.  All zombies walk the same way, they don’t talk, they look as if they have put on too much make-up and they tear up people’s skin for food!  (Well, at least that is what I have always watched on TV).  So that makes them normal to each other.  No people, each of us is not normal.  Everybody is unique.  All of us have different habits and fears!  So your nutty quirk - the one you think is so freakishly unusual – is shared by plenty of other people.  Whether it’s telephoniphobic (fear of answering the telephone) or peladophobia (fear of bald people).  Yup, these things exist.

Some phobias are wacky and some are worrisome.  I recently read a feature about various phobias listed from A to Z.  Do you know there is such thing as fear of feet touching the ground?  So how in the world those people survive in walking?  Basically, this phobia is not about walking, it happens afterwards.  It’s a problem standing still, and eventually, the person will experience a weird tense of feeling in the stomach.  One person that is living with this fear actually quoted, “It’s worse when I’m standing near a chair – I can’t think of anything but my urge to get my feet off the floor.”

Even if the person is calm when walking and still feeling anxious through out the day, it best describes an obsession.  It may sound weird but people have the tendency to describe an obsession as irrational and excessive, and yet they can’t convince themselves not to act on it.  The feeling of putting the feet off the floor is more to compulsion – an action taken to manage your obsession.  An advice?  Do things that could divert your mind off the thoughts.  I don’t enter any psychology school, but I do know that doing something that causes more brain stimulation is at least less anxiety provoking than doing nothing.  New York City psychologist Nando Pelusi says if he were to treat a person with the phobia, he would make sure the person practice keeping the feet on the floor until the weird feeling in the stomach is gone.  So, face the anxiety! Face it good.

Next week: A sneak-peek through ‘I-can’t-remember-people’s-names’!  I’m positive it is very familiar. Keep reading people!

 Filzah Sobri is very keen in writing about quirks in life. Having interest in observing, analyzing and getting to know weird things, she also believes good writings can change the world. So don't miss her next week on 'This & That' section!

How Social Media Ruins Your Relationship -by Sharmayne Cheng

I will be pretty impressed if you have never ever fought with your partner over, Facebook or Twitter, however ridiculous it may sound. Well, unless of course both of you doesn’t own a social media account. Like it or not, we have to admit that social media has pretty much taken over our lives; don’t we sometimes find ourselves in front of the computer doing nothing but refreshing the page waiting for something new to be up? Facebook or FB in short, doesn’t just cause us to waste away quality productive hours but it also poses pesky threats to our love life.  

# 1 : Telltale signs of how FB ruins our relationship

You know Facebook is a problem when your partner come charging on you, asking who was the hottie you’ve just added on Facebook. “Who is she? Do you know her? What’s your relationship with her? She add you or you add her?”.

Thanks to our creative imagination, you might also hate Facebook when people from the opposite sex start giving sly comments on your partner’s page, anything as simple as a smiley or a “xoxo” can irk you and ruin your mood!

And bless us, even relationship status display can make a relationship falter. How? Well, if your partner didn’t take the initiative to change his/her status to “In a Relationship”, you will think that he still wants to be known as single among his network. And if he do changes it to “In a Relationship” but didn’t display your name, you will think that he is not proud of having you. What I am trying to say is, the list of spark plugs that can pop up from Facebook alone is just endless, you get what I mean.

But at the end of the day, after many fights and debates and exhaustion from the intense lung exercise, what do we actually gain? Justification? Satisfaction from proving our partner’s fading enthusiasm? We gain nothing but more frustration and discontentment with each other.

If you are nodding head whilst reading up to this point, you should totally stay tuned for next week’s column on how to tackle our exasperating, inner insecurity with trust.

Sharmayne Cheng is a writer for a local magazine, specializing in relationship issues. 

-Not just another Aunt Agony,   

 See ya till then!

- Logged off -

Beauty Dos and Don’ts. - Written by Alvina Tai

 Every woman wants to look good, to feel good. Truth is that no matter how pretty or gorgeous we are, cosmetics are still our best friend. Some like to keep it simple and natural and some go on like there’s no tomorrow.  Now, none of us would want to look like plain white canvas, neither do we like to go out looking like a clown right?

Beauty Dos!

• Go light with that powder!

Women tends to think that they have tons to cover up on their face but the thing is that, to cover up blemishes, and pigmentations, there’s always the ‘concealer’. Leave the covering-up to the concealer. Not the powder. Applying too much would leave the face looking cakey which would make your features look fake!

• Concealer- Tone down a step.

When choosing the perfect concealer for your skin, the rule is to choose a tone lower than what your skin tone is. This is to conceal those horrible eye-bags better and to add that slight luminance to the eyes. Use a concealer brush for better application (optional). For blemishes, it is better to use a creamy texture concealer for better concealing than liquid ones.

• Stock up on Natural Colors.

For day looks, try not to go overboard by applying extremely eye-catching colors such as neon blues and neon yellows. It’s not that you can’t apply it but avoid using such colors if your skin tone doesn’t suit those colors unless you think that you could pull it off as gorgeous. Try colors such as taupe, light browns, in general, different tones of earthly colors would be great.

Beauty Don’ts!

• Never, never over tweeze your eyebrows!

Remember, when tweezing your brows, just remove the excess and trim it short. Follow according to the shape of your arch. If you’re not sure of the shape, use a pencil liner and do an outline of your arch before you start tweezing. That would help you from over tweezing it or better yet, leave your brows to a professional. After all, it’s only every month once or every two months once.

• Match your lip liners to your lipsticks please.

No one wants to know where exactly are your lips placed. When choosing a lip liner, it is best to choose ones that are close to your lipstick shade or neutral in tone. You wouldn’t want to have a bright burgundy red line outlining your lips matched with a nude rosy toned lipstick now don’t you? It would scare the people that are on the streets from even a mile away.

*** 

Alvina Tai is a beauty-holic, which eats, drinks and sleeps beauty. Cosmetics are her daily dosage of drugs and skin cares are her life-saver.  

For the next issue, watch out for tips on 

“How to create a Day-to-Night Look”.

Less carbohydrate is not enough!

Trying to live a healthy lifestyle but not doing it the right way is as good as getting a negative result in the end. In a series of 3, Kai-Loon will share his tips and tricks to living a healthy lifestyle, the right way!

People these days are persistent to keep their body fit and going on a diet is all they can ever think of should they want to lose the extra fats and weight but little do they know that it does more harm to themselves rather than doing good.

Did you know that when you are hungry, your body feels insecure and hugs on to your body’s fats? This is the main reason why going on just a diet plan will not help you lose your fats; it helps you securely keep it instead! This is a very common perception in people’s mind but in reality, it doesn’t help at all. Another mistake that most people do is by taking fat-burning pills which can’t help to burn the excessive fats for long and there’s also a high chance of a negative side-effect in the future.

The basic to keeping your body fit is always by exercising well. Yes, there’s no shortcut to losing weight! Through physical exercise, your body will burn the calories eliminating excessive fats that you don’t need. It isn’t easy though since to lose 1 pound of weight, you will have to burn 3,500 calories but burning extra calories definitely allows you to lose weight much easier.

So what kind of exercise is most suitable for burning calories? It is no other than cardio-aerobic which ranges from jogging, cycling, swimming to general aerobic workouts, even taking a simple walk at the park for 30 minutes a day can help a lot! Strength-training is also essential so that your muscles to fats ratio is balanced. However, the main benefit of having more muscles is that you will burn more calories as muscles require calories to maintain its shape. Your aim here is try not to sit too much in front of your desk or even staying still for a long period of time as this can only be the worst thing for your body.

The next time you see someone telling you that he or she is on a diet plan without any exercise, you might want to share this tips with that person. If majority indulges themselves to this believe, we will certainly be looking at a lot of unhealthy people in the very near future. Eat well but exercise well too!

Next Week: Learn good eating habits to complement the exercise!

A little bit of narcism. - Amelia DMC09

Narcissism is basically self praise. We deny it, yet bask ourselves in its warmth. We claim to hate it yet hate to submit the facts. Everyone! Regardless of age, gender, height and whatever other humanly possible measurements you can think of.

So, how do we begin to realize we are indeed in our own little ways narcissist? One sure sign is by the way we dress, the trends we follow, the make up we pile onto our faces (the ladies mostly, and some men). Why do we have this itch to wake up early and force ourselves into the bathroom and get “beautiful”?

Who said that was beautiful? Who said YOU were beautiful? Your mummy, well my mummy told me that too. But did everyone else?

This author thinks that being Asian and furthermore, Malaysian, we are so different, basically were shy and pent up, always demure and polite; sometimes it’s a shell. What we think is beautiful, what we deem to be the best. Is that the best, is that pretty? Did your mom tell you the truth?

Oh self-esteem, we both adore you and adhor you. We puff, prod and squeeze into outfits sizes too small. We force ourselves into pants that make thighs beg for mercy, and air. Yes male species, you are not excluded. Is it a denial of our true selves? Perhaps, but why then do we continue being narcissist?

Simple, we love ourselves more than we love others. For it is true, that one cannot love another if they do not first learn to love themselves. So my fellow narcissist, fret not. For to love, we must first have self-love! Be narcissistic, admit to it. Enjoy it, but try not to suffocate the others around you. Or they will just get annoyed and probably try to hurt you.

So dear readers and fellow narcissist, you see now that this isn’t a bad thing.  It is in fact a very common thing that we all experience and go through. We just need to realize that this isn’t always a bad thing; however there is a thin line which separates it from a bad thing. Just prod away, with caution.  Don’t prod till the point of no return, or in other words plastic surgery. You could end up a as another plastic-zilla and that is everyone, regardless how narcissistic’s, nightmare. 

In conclusion, lets just wake up in the mornings and tell ourselves how gorgeous or awesome or even amazing we look. Cheers dear narcissist, you have made the world a better place. So spread the love and raise a glass to being narcissistic.

Signing off till next week, 

Amelia

Writing a Column Sample - Tan Meng Yoe

This is where you write a brief introduction to your column. It should be italicized. This introduction should appear either at the beginning or at the end of every column. It could serve as a preview to the current article, or as a teaser for the next one. You could write a brief bio (one sentence) of yourself to build credibility. Most importantly, this short section should introduce your series!

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Next Week: 10 word preview of what your readers should expect next week!

Tappers Cafe

A cosy little cafe influenced by western decor has also an old school feeling as though it transports you back through time. Equipped with rattan chairs and other furniture, Tappers is an ideal place to hang out during tea time (non-peak hours) as it's quieter. The sunshine and the warmth is perfect as I sat outside relaxed, sipping my chilled drink.

Tappers Cafe offers reasonably priced meal from their menu. Ranging from Western and Malaysian food, customers have many varieties to choose from. Breakfast set is offered until 11am where you can choose from American breakfast, English breakfast and so on. Whereas, lunch set is offered until 2pm where there is meals like Nasi Lemak Ayam Gulai, Carbonara and other delicious meals that will keep your tummy satisfied!

I ordered a chicken ham and egg sandwich and a honey lemon ice. As my order came, I was delighted by the simple yet mouth watering presentation of the sandwich. The sandwich was lightly toasted and the egg was perfectly fried. I munched through my sandwich hungrily and it was delicious but they put too much margarine or butter for my liking. For the honey lemon ice, it was a good choice for a warm day like this. The combination of honey and lemon gives a tingling feeling as I drank it. It wasn't too sour like what other places offers, and they were generous with the amount of honey which makes the drink taste good.

In total, the bill for these two came about RM9 as students get a 10% discount from Tappers. Some of you might think it's pricey, but consider the ingredients used and it's all value for money as the food and drink is really tasty!

Overall, service in tappers is good but can be improved as sometimes, orders are forgotten or it takes too long to come especially during lunch hours. The waiters & waitress are friendly and they could improve their proficiency in English as they might not understand what we're trying to say at times. Orders are taken swiftly but make sure to sit at places where they can see you as sitting in hidden corners will result in the waiters failing to see you and not taking your orders. Definitely I place I would recommend to everyone to go as the food is good and the staffs are friendly too! 

Tappers Cafe is now introducing their Afternoon Tea Set which offers freshly baked homemade scones and homemade pancakes. All tea sets are served with the choice of English Tea, Latte or Cappuccino. It is only RM8.50 per set! 

Address: 5-G, Block D, Jaya One, No. 72A, Jalan Universiti,46200 PJ, Selangor.

Telephone: 03-7958 3198

Rating: 4/5 

Written by: Li Chuen - DMC09

 

No Frills Dining at Kitchen Creatures

Welcome to Kitchen Creatures! - no frills dining

I had dinner with my family at Kitchen Creatures at Centrepoint. It was our first time to the restaurant. :) The setting of the restaurant is that it is relaxing, quiet and suitable for casual dining. The decorations are simple, unique and it suit the relaxing and quiet place. From the outside, it looks like there is no one, but actually there was a divider between the indoor and the outdoor area. My first impression to the restaurant was that it is a clean, neat and tidy environment and a relaxing restaurant for casual dining. :)

Do enjoy the pictures as you scroll down :)

The lights! It's the ceiling decoration. Very unique and simple!

The lights are from Ikea, according to my dad. ;)

House Special Root Beer with slices of ginger.

To me, it tasted like the usual root beer.

Starter : Monster Platter - RM15

This platter consists of Calamari Rings, Chicken Wings, Fried Shrimp, Mushrooms & Nacho Chips.

Fish & Chips - RM12

Crumbed fish fillet which was flaky, not like ordinary fish for fish & chips. Tartar sauce doesn't taste like ordinary tartar sauce. Looks like the tartar sauce is house special.(I had 3 tartar sauce for this. hehe)

Monsterised Beef Burger - RM13

Juicy and tender looking burger with cheese, bacon, beef, chicken ham, egg, lettuce, pickles, onion rings with chips. Looks delicious right?

 Bacon Carbonara - RM11

According to my mum, it's creamy. They are not stingy with bacon.

Shirloin Steak - RM18

 Juicy beef steak.

 Chic Shiitake - RM15

Chicken steak.

Pizza Carbonara - RM13

Pizza consists of bacon, beef pepperoni.... and lots of cheese!!!

So, you have seen the pictures. The food looks delicious, right? Yes, it is! I simple love the food! :D

Guess how much for this dinner of 7 dishes and 4 drinks? It costs . . . . . RM116 only!!! It's cheap for a delicious Western meal. The food pricing is very reasonable and is nett! You pay whatever you saw on the menu. And no tax were charged - tax free! Don't you like it, especially the students? ;)

The staff were friendly, good and fast! The service was pretty fast! No complaint towards their staff. It worth every penny we are paying for! :)

Centrepoint has wifi service. And you could just spend your day at Kitchen Creatures enjoying the wifi service provided by Centrepoint. :)

Do pay them a visit if you’re around there :)

KITCHEN CREATURES

Lot F110, First Floor, Centrepoint

3, Lebuh Bandar Utama

47800 Petaling Jaya

Selangor

TEL: 03 – 7729 8039

Kitchen Creatures gets 4 out of 5.

Post by Cayman Yong, DMC08

*smile*

So BEE It

At first glance, you would notice a cool hangout area that just popped up right beside IACT Gallery. Just like a bee buzzing around a flower, it attracts people to come to this gorgeously designed high class coffee shop. Called "The BEE" it is filled with beautiful interior concepts and design, primarily made of nature elements such as wood. The decoration is mostly made out of wood and the atmosphere screams vintage. Black is the color and it makes use of an open concept utilizing wide space to create mood for the atmosphere, making you feel at home immediately.

It may look like any other high end coffee shop, a bastard child of Starbucks or Coffeebean, as it has a yuppie feel to it with all the power sockets located all over the shop for laptops and free Wi-Fi to capitalize on. It also gives out a sophisticated yet warm feeling to its customers. It does not only serve coffee but also offer a wide range of different food styles - creating fusion food, a mix of sandwiches, burger, salads, fries, cakes and or course coffee.

Ok! Lets get to the food, that what we are here for! As Malaysians, we are all about food,a food in the morning, afternoon, night and even supper. The BEE offers a variety of food but what I was keen on trying out was a fries they offered. Ordering a Chili Cheese Fries, it was surprising to see the amount they gave us, but it did make up for the price as it costs around RM12 for a big bowl of fries. Presentation was actually quite decent as it was served in a nice while oval plate, which makes it look hygienic and clean. 

The fries are lathered in plentiful amounts of cheese and covered with American styled chili, adding to that scrumptious description that it was dabbled with a pinch of salt, making it taste just nice. As for the taste, it was pretty delicious indeed, a tinge of salty melting into a slightly sourish taste with the right amount of crispness. The taste is quite good and it is very addictive once you start munching on it, proven by the fact that my two other friend with me that day, Jared and Sharmayne were practically nabbing my fries. 

Overall, for a delicious bowl of fries for RM12 does sound a bit daunting at first, but I beg to differ as I would recommend that you try this place at least once to get a feel of what they offer. A perfect place to chill for yuppies and high income people like the sort of people from Starbucks who are hungry but at the same time needs a place to chill and surf their laptops - So BEE It!

The BEE gets a 4 out of 5~