I've quite a lot of things planned out. One thing I need is a new cellphone. I was thinking of either getting something very basic and cheap (to text and call), or something more fun but pricier, like an iPhone. The iPhone plan has been scrapped now.

First: I'm starting up a new philosophy website with a friend - the web domain's registered, production has somewhat begun (we've roped in Effa as our production manager, if she'll have us), and I'm currently working on the identity design. We're going global on thought and communications, kids!

Second: I've updated both the Katagender blog (with pictures of some friends for the Tomboy Photo Project), and Tilted World (with a write-up on The Food Pornographer).

Third: I'm starting up yet another (lifestyle) website and am currently seeking funding for it.

Fourth: I have other web projects in the works. Quiiiite a bloody lot.

Fifth: I have 3 print projects, that require the use of Adobe products.

So given the nature of my personal projects, and add to that the fact that I do a lot of digital work as I work for The Nut Graph, a website....

You can say that I'm severely displeased I have to send this RM10,000+, barely-two-months-old Macbook Pro I bought from Epicentre to be repaired. Yeap, the MBP is fucked, and I doubt it's my fault.The trackpad is gone. It's no longer sensitive, and when I try to click on it, nothing happens. I can still use it, but only with an external mouse attached. The trackpad isn't the only thing I've been having problems with either, by the way.

The guy at Epicentre, Barry, was very, very helpful (and registered quite a bit of surprise when he checked my Macbook and went "Wow, that's a lot of crash reports"). If you're adamant about getting Mac-related products, I do recommend the customer service there.

Barry said repairs could take a max of about two weeks. I don't know how I'll cope yet. Was told Applecare is usually very efficient, just not in Malaysia  (unless I'm mistaken, Yee Hou mentioned his Macbook was returned late to him).

Oh, and to top it off, I just got an electric shock from it, plugging in the charger. What the hell?

I've been having numerous problems with this laptop within 3 days of getting it. I thought it was just my insane n00biness (having ill-suffered all the Macs in my Very Expensive Design College). Then I realised it wasn't me. It had a lot to do with incompatibility, and in some cases, malfunctioning hardware.

So. Much as I'd like to trust the iPhone, I am having serious consumer-trust issues right now. I don't believe that spending more on Apple products gets me quality. Right now, I have placed the brand of Apple next to the brand of other "pretty" products of low quality.

I have been told that part of the problem may be that I got the first batch of new Macbook Pros, and those usually have all the problems that they have yet to iron out. I like how the Macbook Pro is designed, really I do. This operating system takes a lil while to get used to, but the overall experience is good.

Still, that kinda means bollocks if the laptop doesn't work and I'm expected to part with it for intermittent periods all the time. My relatives moved to a new house recently, and purchased the works for their new iMac, to decorate their study (no one seems to use it much).

One of the reasons no one uses it -- the wifi on it sucks. So another new Mac user kinda unhappy with it (iit's hard to say they're totally unhappy with it when they hardly use it or rely upon it like I do my Macbook),

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I won't go as far as to say Apple sucks, but...Okay, what the heck. Apple sucks.

Update: My keyboard / entire laptop is currently zapping me. A lil shock goes up my fingers everytime I type something.

No, my hands are not wet.

Problems faced by Macbook:

1) Trackpad goes off

2) Applications crash frequently

3) The entire thing is zapping me everywhere I touch it (and it's an aluminium body -_-")

okay, hurts to type BYE (ironically, the only thing that doesn't hurt to touch is the trackpad that doesn't work).

So that was my NYE party, thanks to pata pon chaka pon, a day before NYE. Quite a lot of my friends were there, so it was happiness.

It got much livelier towards the end of the night, if somewhat depleted of the usual Lapsap crowd. The kind where you get to know everyone a little bit better, like it or not, through their bodies are pressed against you, and the knowledge that not all the sweat dripping off your face belongs to you.

Still, as expected, some Lapsap peeps did arrive at about midnight, yes crowdsurfing happened (avoid Converse shoes connecting with your head!), met another nominee from Little Black Book, did some random doodling, had some freeflow G&Ts, jello shots (and double tequila shots, because I said I would if a certain someone would grab her friend's ass).

They were giving out badges at the party

And through dishonest means, I got em all :P

To Ahmad Puad Onah, president of Malaysian Film Producers Association,

RE: Charging RM20 for Hollywood films so Malaysians will watch local movies:

I call your attention to a quote in a recent article

Antoo Fighter and Cicakman 2: Planet Hitam, which had been expected to be a hit, failed to score with movie-goers, he said.

From here.

Please note that the majority of the sane public did not expect either movie to be a hit. The only people who brag about the Malaysian product that is Cicakman are either

1) directly involved in the production, or

2) tumpanging glamer to the point of desperation. If their cousin's friend's ex-boyfriend's petai seller's underwear's fungus invented char kuay teow made of dead hamsters and dried cum, they'd brag about it too. Maybe then you should make normal food so unaffordable we'd all eat the cummy dead hamsters.

In other news, a little bird called "Do wave hi to me as you jump off KLCC towers" has reported that the local pirated dvds industry fully back those proposals.

Twits. Every morning I wake up and I deal with twits.

Most sincerely,

Lainie.

Ahhh, just had a great dinner. I am well-happy.

Pic made with SantaSnaps, a free gift from Mac Giving Tree -- giving away commercial Mac applications for free during Christmas day. I'm totally digging the RSS reader Headlines, which I downloaded off them.

Mac kids, if it ain't too late, go get your free gifts now - so worth it.

Merry Christmas everybody, misc pagan celebrations, happy Hanukkah, season's greetings, happy holidays and a happy new year. Now, in 20 languages -- naw, I kid.

I do, however, have a greeting I designed that was supposed to go up on The Nut Graph yesterday (but it hasn't, I tatau why). Twas an elaborate plan to get Zedeck into an elf suit. Here it is:

Ho ho ho.

My week's been so crazy, I don't even know where to begin! I guess I'll go with the biggest one:

The Tomboy and Angels fashion show was a blast. Thanks to all who came to support the show, you people were a wonderful audience. At least, that's what I heard, from my friends. I was standing backstage and couldn't see the show :P.

For the more-than-few who have asked; I would rather not answer this, but too many inaccuracies have been inferred about the show's participants from my silence, and the guilty-by-association factor of being my friends, so here goes: NO, not everyone in the show was gay. Siao. You people think I only have gay friends or what? -____-"

The show was a bunch of our friends celebrating diversity with us, in style and gender. Having fun. In a lot of ways, if there was a statement to be made, it wasn't about being gay, as it was an act of daring. I mean, we dragged up almost everyone in that show (heck, did we miss anyone?). And if you've seen some of the automatic, reactionary hate-messages that gay people get when they come out in public, much less when they drag, you'll see what I mean.

But don't let me project upon the fashion show what it meant. This is Jerome's baby, and he's already answered these questions in Fridae.

Anyway, here's a pic of the hat tape-sculpture I made for the fashion show (mounted on Winnie's hat, which was the mould I used):

And this is a great one of a pair of our runway models you may recognise, Meesh and Joyce!

Damn sporting la these two. And honestly, confident-looking enough to pull off the stuff we heaped on them. You can see a few more pics from the show at Katagender's Tomboy Photo Project.

 

Meesh is in my rainbow-coloured jacket, with her glam, man-lesbian-pirate makeup and a huge TOMBOY necklace. Never thought I'd see the day she wears any of my clothing, much less the gayest one in my, er, closet.

Joyce is sporting huge eyebrows, a deconstructed...*mumble mumble* outfit (okay, I actually have no idea what it is), and my cellophane tape hat. Never thought I'd see the day when the Kinky Blue Fairy would be wearing something I made.

Apparently, there was a slight misunderstanding and some of you thought I'd be in the show, as a model. Er, sorry ya :P Aku ni part of production team for the show.

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There was an after-party following Tomboy & Angels, which was some of the best fun I've had all month, thanks to the people. Small group of us stayed behind to party and danced -- a private party with the whole of Annexe's top floor to ourselves. Joyce taught us something new that she learned in Bar Sonic:

Well, I can't say much about how silly it looks because I was right there next to them when I wasn't taking pictures. So....Wall-groping is the new IN. We're going to have a wall-party next, and only a select few may join! Social pariahs without access to wall-space need not apply!

 

Yuki, my fellow contributor from Tilted World, turned out to be a dark horse -- she did some dj-ing, rapping, emceeing, break dancing. WHO KNEW? She started giving away free kisses from me and Joyce to everyone else to wrap up the party.

I told Yuki the girls would probably think I bribed her into doing it.

Also has pictures of Sarchan and Joyce doing a pole-dance duet, Jerome doing a manly chair dance, Chung Wei doing a sexy scarf dance, because Yuki made us do games before leaving.

I kena marah for not introducing them to Yuki earlier :P

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Then, like one fashion show for the night wasn't enough, Yuki and I made a beeline towards Club 69, where we'd been told a PLU-friendly fashion show was happening. Turned out to be organised by Womyn Like Us, a womens' group.

 

I spoke to one of the organisers, who said that they were not an "LGBT" group, though people seemed to think so.

Lainie: You're not? ....Must be the "Like Us" part of your name.....................

Well, a post on the show will be going up on Tilted World soon, so I won't repeat myself here. Okay, enough about events, moving along now.

 

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I'm a good test-subject if you're worried about food going stale, or becoming very expired. My face puffs up when I eat slightly-off seafood, my skin blotches up at grandmother-chicken meat -- so it's not surprising that I'm allergic to alcohol, it being a common allergen in my family. Not that it's bloody stopped any of us (except for the more literal, alcoholic, drank-till-they-died cases).

Of all alcoholic drinks, I may be most allergic to wine. I mean, if you consider it, wine drinking is really just a complex system of enjoying extremely expired fruit juice.

I had two glasses of red at work just now.

...Not the prettiest picture a dyke can put up of her hands, I know. Heh. That'd be the death of my social life if I relied on this blog to get me dates. They itch like hell, by the way.

It doesn't matter that I'm allergic to wine, I ignore it most of the time (say, about twice a week when I go clubbing). I figure it balances out. I'm allergic to the alcohol, but at the same time, alcohol numbs the allergies.Most of the time, I am incapable of feeling it :P.

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Lola's been over at my place a few times, charging her laptop because she forgot her Mac's charger, and I'm the only person she could think of who would be awake at 5am (with charger). Somewhere along the line, ideas were exchanged that involved attempting to exploit Joyce the next day.

Joyce is a darling for many, many reasons, and this is one of them (so trusting!)

Lainie: Joyce, can you do me a favour later?

Joyce: Sure, can.

Lainie: Cool, thanks!

Lola: ...Doesn't she want to know what it is?

Lainie: (Oh, right) Don't you want to know what it is?

Joyce: Oh, right. What is it?

She agreed anyway :P. It was actually for a promo video, but the video didn't happen in the end because plans changed :P.

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My friends recently launched Fortylove.tv, a travel-cast, video website. It has a submissions page - there's a picture of me sticking my tongue out at a safety sign.

I'll like to draw attention to the fact that this is the first safety sign I've been photographed with that...er...I did not take home. Because this time, there wasn't the usual miracle of having someone else coincidentally being there before me. With a saw, screwdriver, and shopping cart.

And, I was in a rival secondary school of my alma mater, with watchful teachers nearby, as Nessa sorted out her kid sister's missing report card.

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I met up with my friend Shu Ting the other day. Never scream for her attention from across the road, you'll cause some panic. She woke me up at 10am, something that she knows better than to do, especially since she's my ex-housemate and I told her not to.

Anyway, we took my very new Macbook Pro to EpiCentre. It's been giving me all kindsa funky problems. Super-pricey hunk of tech, and it gives me all kinds of stupid on a regular basis.

Turns out there's some hardware problem, and they need to take it in for at least a week, maybe two, to fix it. The trackpad, for one thing, is shot. It's like a finger workout just getting the thing to click. Firefox is piss as well -- and all I did was install Googlepedia and Firebug.

It's like I'd love to love it, but it's really not making it easy for me to. And 1 week is seriously a bloody long time to expect me to part with the Macbook Pro. I'm not sure I can actually spare it, I have a LOT of stuff coming up this month -_-".

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I went for an Assemblies of God / New Life church charity dinner last night, in One World Hotel - it was a fundraiser for a new building they want in Kelana Jaya, pretty close to where I stay.

There were Christmas carols, the obligatory Christmas play (two kids in the sheep outfits stole the show), Francesca Peters, who was great and..... this is usually the point where someone gawks that I have any relations with the church.

I seem to find myself reiterating more these days that I have nothing against going for religious functions, despite being atheist. Although I'm really, totally done with church camps now -- even the ones offered to me as...birthday presents.

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I need to go now. I have stuff to prepare for updating other websites. Namely The Nut Graph, No Black Tie, Fortylove.tv, Tilted World, Katagender, and a secret NYE party, a not-so-secret debaucherous one, a lesbian beauty pageant of sorts (and I just got ...nominated -_-"), 1 card project, 1 photography project, 1 proposal, 2 more website projects, 2 film projects, 3 Flash animations, 4 tshirt designs, 5 illustrations, a few meetings and....er....I'm not even done listing.

Er. Wow. Fuck.

If you think the list sounds a bit ridiculous, I concur. I may be stretching myself a lil bit thin, especially since most of it needs to be done before 2009, the rest by January. I'm going to be pushing deadlines like fucksbottom the rest of the week.

I have some big plans for February - three possible outcomes, they'll all take my interests in very different directions if any work out. They all require some timing, some persistence, and a fair bit of luck. I'm doing the best I can to control the other factors, but Lady Luck is one factor I have little control over (though I still try :P)

So wish me some good luck for the coming 2009.

My sister Gazel and brother-in-law Tommy will be back soon, for Christmas. They're currently in Vietnam, visiting family. I keep waiting for the day she comes back with a bun-in-the-oven bump. I've planned so far ahead for my nephews / nieces I've already pictured them reading this.

As you can see, I've a bunch of stuff to see to. So this is a veeery long blog post. I gots to go now. Any mistakes here, I tatau. Meanwhile:

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!