Written by lainie at 06:22 PM on March 1, 2009 in Music.

Some of you have probably seen Terra Naomi's videos on Youtube, she has a Youtube hit by the name of "Say It's Possible". I never caught on as strongly as some of her fanbase, but I had one of her covers playing in the background. The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work.

Like most covers I play on Youtube, I don't give them as much attention. I like Terra Naomi's voice a lot; and she reminds me of some travelling hippie/bohemian friends, especially in those more talky videos. But my attention span is pathetic. So. I'm doing my thing, surfing a few hundred tabs at a go.

Then out of nowhere, some haunting vibrato lifts off my browser and catches me off guard, sending serious chills up my spine. Somewhere after the second minute, this evolved from another slightly above-average cover I was expecting, to one that I have been repeatedly playing, all night. Even Bosco sings along when I play it loud .

So do, check out her cover of "The drugs don't work", and see if you get what I mean.

You can also see her official website here: Terra Naomi. I prefer surfing her Youtube page, she covers a lot of songs I like (along with some of her original compositions). 

You're bound to find a gem or two. Oh, and keep a watch out for a really cool guitarist she has.

Written by lainie at 04:39 AM on March 6, 2009 in work?, Family, Holidays / Road Trip, Arty stuff.

Recently met up with Justine for dinner and crawling around the arcade, playing House of the Dead III. I was wearing tie-dye pants.

Just: Lainie. Those pants are ugly.
Lainie: But they're so comfortable.
Just: Yes, I know. Ugly and uncomfortable? I don't think so.

Hehe. I like my hippie pants. They're a present from Damo and Nessa on their Thailand trip. It drives some of my friends up the wall that I look like such a hippie. Like, I overwhelmingly look like I voluntarily smoke marijuana, hug trees and play the djembe. But I donch care! I love the pants!

These are some vector images for a set of graphics I work for. I changed the concept of the design, so I had to drop the cartoony ones meant for extremely small display (left), and go with more photo realistic versions.

None of the four graphics are completed, by the way. The ones on the left were placeholders/drafts, and on the right, missing the details/"inking" stage, shall we say? I'm most comfortable doing pencils (drawing the lines); inking (adding shadows etc, putting the pencils in ink) is not my forte, so it slows me down a lot.

They're both politicians: can anyone identify them?.

And since people tend to ask me, the two on the right are manually illustrated with pen tool and mouse, a lot of zooming, and my nose a few inches from the screen. Not automated live-trace. Personally prefer how things look, done manually, so it's worth the time for me.

Friday is a mixed-work day for me, pulling in news from Bernama, sub-editing, laying-out, illustrating, and on that day, designing an e-newsletter template and a Flash advert (see illos above).

It's a first for me, but last Friday, I left work early. I'm not comfortable with it, but who am I to deny the persistent, straight-girl-with-collection-of-lesbians-around-her-pinky that is Smile?

And so, a lil bit later, there I was in Genting Highlands! Arena of Stars!

Because Smile insisted I make my way there to watch the Malaysian International Dance Championship 2009. There were so many beautiful women dancing, it's crazy.

The night I was there, the "World Top 12 Couples" for Latin and modern were dancing.

You'd think that Genting is too far away to randomly bump into people, but we did. It was past midnight and very dark by the time we headed home.

We took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up on this VERY DARK, winding, lonely road in Genting. It was long, quiet, filled with abandoned projects, overgrown weeds and had that all around creepy, eerie feeling that no one had any business being there even in broad daylight, much less when we were.

This is what Amber Court looks like, in the daytime: Bloody haunted (as Smile, who was driving, will attest to due to some freaky experiences staying there a few years ago):

From here

Like Smile asked: How can this place not be fricking haunted??!
It screams "PRESUME THIS PLACE IS MOTHERFUCKING FILLED WITH BADASS SPIRITS!"

Btw. Two new graphic styles I introduced to TNG recently.

For a mix of pop-ish, comic images: Bedroom antics and public outrage, by Jacqueline Ann Surin

More vector friendly, gradient (which I prefer not to use), snarky images:  RM 300 "gift" mystery unsolved, by Teo Nie Ching.

The thing about working at TNG that I like (which some people may hate), is how it sometimes channel that Lippmann vibe. Oh well. Different folks, different strokes.

Written by lainie at 03:11 AM on March 11, 2009.

I love the women I know in Malaysia.

We grow 'em good here

In terms of the people I meet, damn it's a good, good thing to be a lesbian in KL. Fuck good. It's fantastic. We rock. Pats on the back all-round!

[ you blokes ain't doing too badly yourselves! ]

Now I have to scurry back to work. Laters!

Written by lainie at 06:00 PM on March 16, 2009 in Daily Life, Friends.

I've been trying to meet up with Meesh for dinner for a while, which makes it all the more frustrating that I know she's been having all these dinner parties and whatnot....without me.

You think a phone call would sort all these stuff out, right?

Lainie: I will go batshit-insane-LESBIAN on you if you don't meet me for dinner!
Meesh: You think I'm scared of you? I'm heterosexual, WE RULE THE WORLD!
Lainie: Shit, woman, no wonder I'm attracted to you.

So Annu, consider yourself warned. It's dinner at lezzie-friendly (or, lezzie-dominated) restaurant Boathouse, some time soon, with Meesh and me.

Note: Meesh was the one who picked Boathouse.

I've been hanging out with a group of "rainbow friends". That's code for "We're all Care Bears".

The latest group excursion involved going to this awesome restaurant in Sri Kembangan, called Kien Kee. We had claypot chicken, rice wine prawns, some veggies, and the reason we were there: Claypot pepper pork soup Awesome best. Right after dinner, it started pouring really heavily and some of us nearly fell asleep at the table.

This was followed by drinks at Boathouse, because it's a pet friendly restaurant and we had Bosco with us. Saw a beautiful golden retriever there in it's own special dream world. A few regulars were there as well, with their terrier. I had hot chocolate with marshmallows.

Our troop swelled in numbers, and we played a card game called In Between -- I remember telling them that shouting "Let's play 'in between'" in our private room sounded kinda skanky.

THEN, much later at night, we had supper at Misai, SS2. It's not really the same without Misai hovering around, ever ready for when you need to order a drink. It is, however, still a good hang out place when we're so familiar with it.

Foodie friends are fun When they like to have looong, chilled out nights together, it's even better. I love mamak culture here.

Written by lainie at 02:45 AM on March 17, 2009.

To my favourite blog provider,

Happy birthday

love,

Lainie

Written by lainie at 01:42 PM on March 24, 2009 in Friends.

So when I'm sleepy I'm one of the worst people to talk to. I become filled with lies, and they slip out real easy. Anyone who has tried waking me up will know this. Anyone who asks me if I love them while I'm sleeping gets the same answer too .

Today, Anti tried to wake me up really early in the morning.

Anti: It's spicy skin.

Lainie: Wha - ? Spicy skin?

Anti: .....It's FIVE. FIFTEEN.

Lainie: (but spicy skin but but...OH!) OH!

Then I fell back to sleep and dreamt of spicy chicken wings.