30 Jun 2009 Michael Jackson
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Playlist

I’ve tried countless of times to try and write a really great entry about Michael Jackson. But then I realised that he is one of those people that you simply don’t know how to go about writing about his greatness. To put it simply, words can’t describe him.

All I could do really, was to compile all of my favourite songs of his into a playlist, starting with Ben, which I believe has the ability to make people tear just from the simple lyrics and more importantly, the angelic voice of Michael Jackson.

His passing came too sudden, I believe all his fans were eagerly anticipating his comeback concert. Everyone was waiting because everyone knew that he would make a comeback some way and that it would be grand.

When I was in the car, and I heard his passing on the radio, I believe everyone around felt the same feelings. Shock, sadness and just a mixture of emotions that is simply indescribable. I believe the news only really settled in when people saw it reported in the news, when the facts of his death was being described.

I won’t go about recounting his achievements, because they are there for all to see. But I will count the 5 things that I love about Michael Jackson.

1) Him singing Ben

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How many of people knew this song was about a rat? How many people thought this song truly related to their lives? I could always listen to this song for hours on end and never get sick of it.

Simply because this song is beautiful, is innocent, is everything we love about Michael Jackson.

Because this song oozes with beautiful emotion, because this song makes us cry if we really listen.

Ben, the two of us need look no more
We both found what we were looking for
With a friend to call my own
I’ll never be alone
And you, my friend, will see
You’ve got a friend in me
(you’ve got a friend in me)

Ben, you’re always running here and there
You feel you’re not wanted anywhere
If you ever look behind
And don’t like what you find
There’s one thing you should know
You’ve got a place to go
(you’ve got a place to go)

I used to say “I” and “me”
Now it’s “us”, now it’s “we”
I used to say “I” and “me”
Now it’s “us”, now it’s “we”
Ben, most people would turn you away
I don’t listen to a word they say
They don’t see you as I do
I wish they would try to
I’m sure they’d think again
If they had a friend like Ben
(a friend) Like Ben
(like Ben) Like Ben

2) HIS MOONWALK

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How many people have imitated his moonwalk since he debuted this move on his performance for Motown?

Yet, how many people can truly acheive the perfection with which he does his moonwalk and how many people can get people screaming just for that 5 seconds where he does the moonwalk.

He was a great dancer and his moonwalk, unparalleled.

3) For being famous, but not forgetting about the poor people around him

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Many people tend to remember him for his great songs, for his great moves but I think along the way, people forgot to mention that he was just a great human being with a great big heart.

He was awarded the humanitarian award for the effort he put into fighting AIDS in Africa and the Presidential Humanitarian Award for helping people overcome alcohol and drug abuse.

There are just countless of deeds that he did for people that shows that he may be rich, but he’s never forgotten the poor or the less fortunate.

And who can forget that he co-wrote a charity anthem “We are the World” with Lionel Ritchie.

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4) For all the inspiration you’ve sparked through your great songs and your great dance moves.

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There are so many great songs he wrote, so many great dance moves he created. From what he wrote, people gained the inspiration to write. From the way he danced, people created new dance moves.

He inspired others and without a doubt, everyone loves him for that.

5) For simply being him

Throughout his life, he didn’t try to copy someone else’s moves, someone elses writing style, song style. Everything he produced, it came from him, from his heart.

For simply being the way he was, doing the things he loved best, he inspired us and he made us love him back.

Though he is gone, the memories he created, the songs he created, everything he did, will carry on forever into future generations.

And the only words I associate with Michael Jackson: Talent, Genius and mostly indescribable.

Becauses its impossible to put into words everything that he did and the person that he is. We will never have another Michael Jackson, so we will never forget about him. (:

26 Jun 2009 ROM and photoshoot!
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My holidays have been extended by a week due to swine flu. Stuck at home for elearning next week, wondering if its a good thing or a bad thing. I think going back to school is much better then elearning but then again its good for the school to test the elearning system just in case you know. (:

Ok, enough of my rambles. Now to upload some of the ROM (Registry of Marriage) and photoshoot photos. Which are all very cool and very nice.

I don’t really know the order of the pictures so I’ll do it based on what I think happened first. HAHA.

Starting with the ROM pictures…

ROM

The justice explaining that marriage is important, sacred and making sure they understand what they’re getting into. That its not just a shotgun marriage etc.

ROM

A close up of the Justice.

And on a random note, the justice that married my father and mother is still there doing the exact same thing! Marrying people off to each other!! Cool isn’t it, even after 20 plus year!

ROM

Them saying their vows like I will always promise to love you, cherish you protect you all these sweet mushy stuff. I think I’m going to write my own wedding vows in the future, I kind of don’t really like the current one. Abit too cheesy, I like to put my own twist on it. (:

ROM

After saying the vows, they help each other wear the rings (kind of like looping each other together forever). And the classic ROM or wedding shot of the wedding rings below…

ROM

ROM

I think its important for you to find out which hand and which finger to place the rings on, especially the males, cause you place the rings first. HAHA. My aunt forgot which and there was quite the commotion. Believe me.

ROM

ROM

The couple signing the marriage cert first. Then passing it on to the witnesses and the Justice.
ROM

ROM

ROM

The witnesses signing the certificate. (I don’t know who these people are! HAHA)

ROM

The justice saying the few final sacred words, “I now pronounce you man and wife” or somethng to that extent before passing them their wedding certificate.

And…

ROM

YAY! They are finally officially married, wedding certificate and all. (:

ROM

I love the wedding certificate casing nowdays, nice shiny and gold! Much better than my parents era. Those were the days when gold wasn’t common eh. ;)

Now some random pictures of the very beautiful “wedding set” that they purchased. Very beautiful and cute!

ROM

ROM

ROM

ROM

All these shots are very nice and artistic huh! Taken by the brides brother who is a semi professional photographer, he carries one of those SLR cameras that look really cool where you can adjust the zoom manually and all that high gadget stuff!

Now its some picture time with the people who attended before heading outside for a quick shot with the scenery there.

ROM

ROM

They look like a family already don’t they? Though the baby is the bride’s sisters! But I’m sure they’ll form their own family soon.

ROM

random shot of the bride.

ROM

a very cute shot of the baby! (:

Then they head outside to take some shots to remember this beautiful beautiful day where they can officially call each other hubby and wife. (:

ROM

A very cute shot of them sticking tongues out at each other! Very candid and I like it because its not so stiff and more natural I guess. Shows the playfulness of them huh!

ROM

ROM

ROM

I don’t know why my cousin hardly smiles, I think he thinks its nicer to smile without teeth. Most of the shots were like he really wants to burst out laughing but he is controlling hard, those kind of expression if you catch my drift.

But he is very happy of course! He married such a beautiful wife. (:

And what has got to be my favourite shot from the ROM pictures…

ROM

I like this shot because its a good representation of marriage. Theres a long road ahead and you’ve walked half of your life alone, but now you have someone beside you, to hold your hand and to walk down the rest of that long path with you.

So yea, I think this is a good representation and the leaves and everything, I just really like this picture!

Ok, so now for the photoshoot pictures. I picked those that I liked, which is alot!

Staring with the studio pictures…

photoshoot

photoshoot

photoshoot

I like this last photo because I always like to take something near in focus and the one behind slightly blurred out, I think its the coolest effect and makes everything just look that much cooler.

photoshoot

photoshoot

photoshoot

The great thing about this photographer I think is because he managed to catch some shots where the really natural expression comes out, where you can tell the smile is from the heart and not from just faking it. So yea, some of the best shots were them with their most natural expression.

An important thing about being a photographer, is being able to make your subject comfortable, so comfortable you’re able to take shots of them in their natural state, which is often where most beauty lies.

photoshoot

photoshoot

I personally like this picture alot, the colour of the flowers and the angle of the shot is really great. So yea, one of my favourites. (:

photoshoot

photoshoot

My mummy loves this photo and she wants me to replicate the exact same pose (crazy lady) but I do agree its one of the best photos. (:

photoshoot

People used to be superstitious about not wearing black but even black now can look very sleek, chic and cool and matched with gold, I think its really quite the perfect match for a gown.

Time to head outdoors for the photoshoot! (All these photos were taken in Singapore)

photoshoot

photoshoot

I didn’t even know there was a railway track left in Singapore, but I really like the idea of taking photos there! Railway tracks are one of the best scenic spots to do photoshoots to me.

photoshoot

awww. so in love. (:

photoshoot

photoshoot

I find the next few pictures tell a story!

photoshoot

Groom: “Will you marry me?”
Bride: “Let me think about it first. I have alot of suitors you know.”
*Groom kneels from winter to fall to spring and back to autumn again*

photoshoot

Bride gets touched.
Bride: “Oh all right, I’ll marry you since you outkneeled all your competition.”
Groom: “YES!”

photoshoot

Together forever. THE END. AWWWW~~~

Ok, fine that was lame, I’m bored aren’t I! Haha

photoshoot

Like this photo as well, foreground blurrish, background clear.

photoshoot

photoshoot

photoshoot

photoshoot

I like the heart shape here! So perfectly drawn!! haha

photoshoot

And ending off again with my favourite shot (It was so hard to choose!!)

photoshoot

I just love this photo because of the backdrop and the whole effect is just super sweet and I just really like it!!

Nowadays photoshoots are so wonderfully nice! You have like a billion costumes to change into and you get to go to beautiful places and they photoshop the backgrounds to make them look so marvelous

All done in Singapore! Don’t even have to travel to overseas to get snow as your backdrop! So yea, I really love all the photos and it shows us all that Singapore does have scenic spots to take photos no?

Anyway, the final editing in the book was done marvelously and I think the memories of the photoshoot, I will safely say, can be kept forever. (:

FINALLY UPLOADED EVERYTHING! (:

Its not the end that matters but the process of getting to the end.

22 Jun 2009 Day of the wedding! (:
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Today I’m going to post lots and lots of pictures, about 50 plus pictures on my cousins wedding and I will upload the ones on my cousins ROM and his photoshoot pictures another day cause I’m lazy to resize them all! HAHA.

So today there shall be less words and more pictures, which is preferred by everyone no?

These are the pictures taken before, when we had to go collect the wedding cake from the groom’s house:

basket Day of the wedding! (:

basket

This is the basket where you store all the dowry that you’re supposed to give to the brides parents according to what they have formerly discussed with the groom’s parents.

Normally dowry includes money, jewellry (prefably gold), food etc. You catch the idea. For the money, you have to accept the amount and then give a little back to the groom’s parents. Its kind of a courtesy.

Some of the stuff that went into the basket:

foodstuff

jewelry

I think its jewelry inside these packages, I’m not really sure.

foodstuff

So you can pretty much request for any food that you want, like you see here, the brides’s parents requested for pork leg I think. And we brought home pork leg ourselves!

I wonder if you can make totally unreasonable requests like eh, I want a billion oranges and ehhh… 2 thousand clothes sewn from fine silk or something.

HMMM.. i think nobody would want to marry me after that though. BOOO. ahhaa.

But a girl can dreammm…

So when I told you we were going to collect wedding cake, what exactly did you imagine? Did you imagine something like…

cake

this?

This is what we got:

wedding cake

wedding gift

cake

Its kind of a Teochew cake kind of thing which we totally didn’t know how to appreciate and we didn’t even know how to go about eating it. HAHA.

So yea, apart from the peanut brittle and what looks like lao po bing, we didn’t really eat anything else. BOOO. Anyway, something really special I found was this…

pork leg

On the can of each pork leg, there is this “XI” word, which is kind of the word you see everywhere during chinese wedding, meaning happiness or something to that extent.

Isn’t it sweet??? All pork legs have that nice little sticker on it!

Now on the day of the wedding, we head off to the groom’s house for the tea ceremony!

The groom picks the bride up from her house first, which is pretty much where all the fun happens, where you get to make the groom do horrible things like eat wasabi and say sweet stuff like i love you in 500 languages or something. Ah, so lucky to be me. (:

While waiting for the groom and bride to arrive, took some pictures of my cousins:

cousins

cousins

tea ceremony]

The couple have arrived and the tea ceremony begins!

tea ceremony

tea ceremony

tea ceremony

First, they serve tea to the parents and collect red packets filled with lotsa lotsa moolah! Then they serve the elders according to seniority, the most senior getting served first.

tea ceremony

tea ceremony

Starting with my eldest uncle. Followed by my aunt.

tea ceremony

tea ceremony

Then my PARENTS! (:

tea ceremony

tea ceremony

My mother kept wanting to be called XIAO JIE (Miss)! Totally in her dreams. In the end, she got some really oldish sounding title like DA YI or YI MA or something. Ah well, HAHA.

My mummy was smiling so widely till her mouth couldn’t even close. If I got married I think she might have a permanent problem closing her mouth. I CAN’T WAIT FOR THAT DAY! HAHAHA.

Lastly, my youngest uncle and auntie.

tea ceremony

tea ceremony

Because my cousins are all younger or of the same age as this cousin, we all don’t get tea served to us. AWWWW SHUCKS.

But all of the people have to give them red packets when served tea. And if you are the one carrying the tea, you get red packets too! DAMN! I shoudl have done that instead of standing there taking pics! hahaha.

Then its picture time!

wedding

wedding

They are too busy looking at the professional photographer to even be bothered with me… :(

family

With the grooms side of the family.

bestman

With all the best man.

bridesmaid and bestman

With bridesman and best man.

They head off to my cousins old room to check out his past living conditions:

wedding

Them on his old bed.

xiao ding dang

xiao ding dang

My cousin LOVES xiao ding dang. To the extent he has one whole collection of them even in his new house. And he apparantly hugs this very grotty one for years on end, explaining why it looks like a 100 years old.

After they left to take photos of them in various scenic spots, we remained in the groom’s house and took more pictures of my cousin.

We also used this special machine to weigh how much body fats we have! And apparantly I’m in the healthy range! WHOOPEE!

wedding

wedding

cousin

cousins

cousin

cousin

cousin

My cousins learn aikido, which is why they normally adopt some kind of fighting stance. Not because they are obsessed with fighting!

After that, we headed to the bride and grooms new house for a buffet. And when we got there, we bumped into them downstairs!

wedding

wedding

And they’ve changed into the 2nd attire for the day!

Some pictures of their dog inside their house:

dog

dog

dog

Its a schnauzer and its name is CANCAN. Cute name huh?

Which leads me to think…

dog

Is my mixed poodle silky terrier a.k.a silky poo cuter or the schnauzer? SAY MY DOG!

And since we’re comparing.. how about..

cousin

My cousin and the brides sisters daughter? Whose cuter? HAHA.

I didn’t manage to catch her in her 3rd outfit for the day but here and some pictures of her room:

room

room

 Day of the wedding! (:

The room is pretty much decked out in bright red and pink. And no, we didn’t hide chickens under the bed to see if their first child would be male or female. And no, we didn’t get kids to roll on their bed so they can have children soon.

Anyway, they had this framed photo of the photoshoot they had for their wedding at the top of the door:

photo

Alrighty, I’m done with updating! I’ll update the pictures from ROM and the photoshoot another time. I shall end with my favourite photo from the photoshoot just to give you a sneak preview:

photoshoot