This man.

Rotten Mangos

I placed an order at mango.com on June 22, the day before my dragonboat race at centre island (and my untimely motor vehicle accident). The package had been left with DHL for two weeks long overdue! I finally got a chance to pick it up with the help of my mom.

I ordered 5 dresses in total. This was my first time shopping at mango.com (let alone owning some pieces from this brand) and I was, to say the least, very excited about this order. Every piece of apparel on their e-commerce website looked desirable. To say the least, their models did their job well -- I wanted to buy off whatever was on their backs! But, of course, I was on a budget. I had carefully calculated my expenditures such that I would be able to receive free shipping. This way, if I had to return something, I could do so without incurring the non-refundable delivery fees.

First and foremost, a glimpse into what I had ordered appropriately sums up my high expectations:



And then ... came the disappointment. 

It's amazing how these models have sold these dresses by virtue of a statuesque and tall frame. I fell for it of course. Each and every single pose.

Showing some desktop love

Dubbed "Exhibit A" 

I have a graphic and web design background. I have been using the internet since 2000 when AOL was handing out those 30-day free trials. A lot has changed since then, but I still hold my detail-oriented, organization and functionality principles when it comes to everything I do -- including arranging the desktop for my company laptop! 

Exhibit A showcases the finest of my interface creations. 12 taskbar icons neated arranged so the most frequently accessed applications are closest to the edge. Coupled with the left windows positioning, this is a match made in heaven! I have never tried this style of desktop layout before, but it's definitely growing on me. My second work term last year, another co-op student chose to move his task bar to the right, who would have knew I was going to do the same thing a year later! 

My Gmail background is tastefully decorated with artwork from Vladstudio, my go-to wallpaper source since 2008! I am using the iDesignEco theme for Chrome, which is hands down the best chrome theme out there!

I am fitting right in. Who else is enjoying the official banner header for this blog? The artwork is drawn by crysticx from Deviantart. I'm also using this as my cover photo for my Facebook profile (temporarily deactivated though!). 

Starting with the basics

As I mentioned in my first post, I am officially swallowing my pride and seeking help in clothing myself. Hopefully this journey of self-discovery helps me find things that work for my body shape and allows me to confidently carry a style that does good things to my impression on others.

I am a follower of trends. I do this because I feel good knowing I am partially in the loop of the fashion jungle. Really though, it's time to step off the pedestal and drop my preconceived notion that I understand fashion. Watching countless episodes of What Not to Wear and reading Flare magazine doesn't give me any credibility when I have not transferred any of that for my own sake. My first step? Consulting Fashion for Dummies.

My Canon XS

I purchased my Canon Rebel XS 3 years ago during a Boxing Day sale at Futureshop. For $500 at that time, it was a good deal in my eyes. Unfortunately looking back, I regret that my first DSLR was not a second-hand purchase since really, at that price, it was too little for what I could have gotten.

The free camera bag was the deal breaker. Reminiscing about these naive times is a little awful. I still can't believe I got sucked into this purchase because of such a silly frill. The bag was WAY too huge. Not very portable and very heavy to carry.

It is almost the equivalent of two of my current camera bags, placed in portrait position! Sometimes, it really does pay to consult the internet first before proceeding with a hobby. 

Unfortunately though, it has a scratch on the display screen, but it's very faint. You don't want to know how long it took me to grab this shot with my Canon Powershot! 

I have been looking into wireless remotes for my 1000D recently. A Google search brought me to several flickr discussions mentioning the Rebel XS does not have a built in ability to use wireless. 

 It does not have the Infrared sensors to work with the wireless.

 which totally sucks! Instead, I have found some alternatives on eBay that users have been suggesting,

Get the Yongnuo RF-602 set for $30 on eBay. It can also be used to trigger an external flash, which makes it extra useful.

I have my eye set on this cheaper one by Link Delight: 

Fits my budget better since I have been off work for over 6 days now ㅠ ㅠ. I've e-mailed the seller for some more assurance it will work on my XS. When they respond, definitely placing an order. I've been meaning to get a remote for the longest time -- this will definitely help with self-shooting.

Formal introduction

It has taken me over 3 hours to get this Blogger template settled into my new home on the internet.

I have always disliked Blogger for good reason.

Their templates are a huge hassle to code! Granted, I have never tried creating a Blogger theme before, but the thought of coding one is as mind wrenching as my attempts have been to code a Livejournal layout (which by the way, I would much rather design for LJ over Blogger!).

So what of this place? It has been over 3 years since I legitimately opened a blog. My recent tumblr page has been deemed a success -- it will be two years on January 2013! I'm hoping the same trend can carry on with this seed ... please sprout to wonderful things amuese.blogspot.com!. In fact, I'm so sure that will be ... it's 2:00AM and I cannot sleep because of this!

My plans for this blog will be to document a time in my life when I wanted to ride the photography / fashion / music / life blog wave of my early twenties.

I aspire to take beautiful photos of hidden gems. By that, I'm referring to human subjects that frankly speaking, don't stand out. These people could be plain, average, unattractive. I want to find the beauty in what others do not see, capture a moment of confidence through a photo. My goal is to learn enough photography techniques and applying them to those photoshoots. It has been my dream since being inspired by zemotion. This blog will hopefully document my journey, and introduce you to some interesting characters along the way!

Relating very closely with photography is fashion. Let me formally admit, I may have been a late bloomer. But I have always been stubborn and more often than not, blindsided by my ego. I am 2NE1 (excuse the pun, they have a new song out to make them relevant again) and it's becoming more and more difficult for me to find a style I am comfortable with. Since my family works in textiles and apparel manufacturing, I have experienced first hand the grunt work required to produce clothing for our backs). Having piqued an interest in fashion bloggers recently, I would like to get my feet wet in this too. Not going to lie, it sounds like loads of fun!

I currently eat, sleep and breathe K-pop. Once upon a time in high school, it was Visual Kei. Times are a changing. Again, what a great way to use this blog as an outlet to rant, review and rave (over my biases of course!). But then again, I do have a tumblr for a reason. So let's hope my discussions are more constructive on Blogger if anything. I am a huge fan of this fellow, resident writer for Asian Junkie. During first year university, I had clung onto various western gossip websites, reading threads on Livejournal not only to catch up on news, but to improve my writing and inspire me to have an opinion (but mostly it was to steal starky comments for my personal encyclopedia). The folks at Asian Junkie have reignited my once bad habit. This time though, I am riding the Hallyu wave.


A blog post that was drafted at 2:00 is now concluding at 2:25. This definitely will take some getting used to. I can't believe I spent so long typing this up :<