Goodbye Generic, Hello Media Merchants!

howdy. here's a quick update as to why i havent had the time to update the blog. i have been suffering from the reality of life, one blow after another. when people say, life's never an easy ride, its very true.

first of, my flatmate, after all the planning and budgeting on my side, decided to pull out of moving to a new house. what makes it worse was, we are gonna move in the new house in less than 2 weeks, thats when he decided to tell me. also, i got the news from him 3 days after i lost my job (i will get to that later). honestly, i was very disapointed with his decision. it shows lack of commitment and definitely no loyalty whatsoever. i just have one thing i'd like to add to him, dont confuse kindness to weakness.

now, to the job. been told the economy is bad, bla bla bla, the company decided they cant keep me. one of the most outrageous excuse was - **me and another designer's probation period was up. they have to either confirm me and the other designer. they decided to let me go because, i'm younger, more versatile and have experience in other fields and i'm single so it would be easier for me to get a job somewhere else whereas the other designer is 45 years old (i think) and has a family. they said it would be hard for him to get a job especially when its almost xmas and his family needs his support.** honestly, i feel for the other designer, but seriously, this is FUCKING DISCRIMINATION!! so they pay me out, got about 6k all up, spent a few days chillin, bumming around, got invited to Hunter Valley to cook for a few functions, get paid, went to melbourne for a few days, ballarat for a few days, roadtrip to newcastle for a few....

last week, got a phone call from Media Merchants (check out their website - http://www.mediamerchants.com.au/), they have a position for a graphic designer. went in for an interview, got the job the next day. lol. stylish studio, stylish people. working IN the city which means i get to dress up, catch the train in and after-work drinks. the best part is its only 5 min from the harbour. stylish indeed. this means losing the job at Generic wasnt so bad after all. as soon as i get the news that i'v got the job, i booked my flight back to malaysia via bangkok. so, penang kia... i will be back and bangkok here i come!!!

one last bit on the good news front. got a phone call from my solicitor. he told me my permanant residency has been approved. bloody hell... been such a freakin long wait, at long last. I GOT IT!!!

anyway... thats about the updates i'v got in regards to my well being in OZland. oh by the way... bought a few things this month (pix below)... some new shoes (FUCKIN' A) and bought a new hellboy figure. til then... buzz off!

Haul of the Month

Nike - Terminator Halloween

Puma - Cabana Racer 2

Adidas - Original Red, White & Blue

10" Animated HellBoy

MightMug - Venom

one more to the oakley family

time for a change. there have been a few significant changes in my life so i thought it would be fair to change a bit. be it change in the way i think, the way i react to situations, the way i handle issues etc. changing the way i look is certainly one of them... (i'm after the geek / sheek / punk look). :). got this new pair of Oakley glasses at OPSM, a friend who works there is kind enough to give me his 50% off voucher, which is too tempting to say no.

anyway... there were a few pair i was interested in. a pair of DKNY, 2 other pairs of Oakley and a pair of Prada. but hey, i'v always been a Oakley person... so end up with Oakley of cos. i love this look... if u dont think its nice... its ur problem, not mine... lol. joke joke joke... no offence!

a lost memory... now found!

friends. i'm sure most of you have heard me talking about me being involved in a heavy metal band. (Acardian, yes i came up with the name, if u dont know what it means, dont be lazy, check the dictionary and mind you, i wrote most of the songs for the band too... so dont think im messing around!) the lead singer of the band, Bern, posted some pix of the band and i cant help but to rip them out of his site and post them here. it's funny looking back, and sure does bring back fond memories when we were all so young. i miss those times when we travel everywhere on our motorcycles to gigs. the pix below are of our first ever gig at RockWorld in Penang organised by a chinese rock society Huang Huo. we sure did rock the stage and show them what heavy metal is all about... lol. *sorry bout the quality of those pix... those days we werent all that arty farty. lol. check out the Beyond posters man.... fuiiiyoooh!.... rock gile mangkuk!!!

sound check y'all!

another wave of sribbs

an updates of the latest scribbs. i'v started to experiment with using ballpoint pen to sketch and shade. boy, its much harder than i thought. shading with ballpoint pen is similar to doing tattoos. its not easy to blend every each stroke and to have to shade makes it even harder. however, i'm having fun.

scribbly dum scribbly doo

more scribbles....

thousand apology for the quality... couldnt be bothered to scan the scribbles... just took the pix with my phone...

concentration?

just a coupla random pix.... a lazy way for an update.

It's all falling apart...

Last night has been a bloody nuisance with the car. Though of going to the city so i went home, got changed and picked up me flatmate. When we got to the car, we realised that for some reason, we cant open the door to the passenger side. Inside or outside. I can only open it with the car key, which is a pain in the arse but at least i can open and close it.

After that, drove to the city, parked the car, I get out of the car to unlock the door for me friend to get out, I saw the latch to the door and it looks like it got stuck, thats why we couldnt open the door. My itchy finger decide to try pick it with the car key and guess what, the bloody thing clicked and the latch turned in such a way, it got worse. Now i cant even close the car door.

Spent 45min pulling the door apart, panel and all trying to fix it but of cos i failed. It was too dark to do anything. Decided to get some strings and tie the bloody door.

Cant even go to work today cos i need to get the car fixed. If i dont do it today, I wont have a car to use over the weekend and its not safe to leave the door unlocked. Not that i mind terribly taking the day off but its just a nuisance to have the bloody old piece of crap playing up every now and then. Its not the first time the car is giving me problems. Somtimes it wouldnt start, have to open the hood, knock the wiring here and there (I dont know what im doing most of the time by the way) and it starts again, or the window got stuck, have to remove the door panel and fix it up. Once it was raining when the window got stuck. Stupid car!

Guess I have to seriously think about selling this junk and get a new car!

holy macaronni... its Leopard!

no shit... the company just upgraded the Mac i used to work to a Leopard! how freakin cool's that? seriously, it looks really good. im not 100% it works better... but the look of it alone is enough. the keyboard is stainlesssteel and its so thin... ridiculously thin. fuckin A!!!

bored at work...

now, in my previous post regarding my job at Generic i mentioned that we dont get internet connection cos the boss are afraid that all the designers will bludge instead of work. so apart from work, there's really nothing else most fo us could do hence most of us are bored. the only thing i can do other than work is to sketch occasionally. friends from college all know i cant draw. anyhow... these few sketches are done at work. well my attemp to get better at least. critics welcome... those who wanna judge... go piss off.... hehe. nah kidding... its all good!

*p/s... some of the work are inspired by CW aka Green. check out his blog. u can find the link on the right panel under Alliances.

Auto Salon Sydney 2008

lately, weekend has been pretty full on. too many social agendas one after the next. not that im complaining but i think i need to slow down and have some time by myself. apart from all those social activities, i get to go to the Auto Salon Sydney show even though i no longer work there. its kinda nice to catch up with former collegues and say hello. reminds me a fair bit of the fun i had working with them. anyhow, some pix i took with the camera phone.... i love love love the new GTR!

GLOOMY ON SALE!

My latest haul would be this 18" Gloomy bear. saw this in newtown over the weekend. the first time i saw this, it was almost 100 bucks. the shop that carries this has a huge sale on at the moment, scored this at $50. i think there's only 2 left... to those who are interested.

Almost a month...

It has been almost 1 month since i left Auto Salon and joined Generic Publication. initially, i thought i would be so bored with this new company. but now, all seems to be going well. maybe my ability to adapt to new environment helps. its more like a routine for me now, get in - work - coffee break - sketch between jobs - lunch - coffee break - sketch - work - home.

i must say, the people i work with are generally cool, friendly. i do get along with most of the designers. they have no problems stopping by my desk to say hello or to 'bludge' (the term they use for doing anything else apart from work). the best part about this job is, there's no pressure and stress whatsoever. pick up a job from the co-ordinators, take ur time and when you finish, pick up the next one. most of the jobs can be finished in an hour or so but no one really cares how long you take to finish as long as it looks good and screams RETAIL!!! designing retail ads is a lot harder than i thought. most of the designers thinks designing nice ads are hard. designing ads that sells are even harder. especially when you have to incorporate starburst, 5 colours in 1 ad etc. to have all these elements in the ad but still look half decent and presentable is harder than most people think. but then, im managing... so guess its not impossible.

the only negative thing i can say about working here is there isnt anything else you could do here apart from work. there's no internet connection for the designers, cos there's no need to (so they say but then its quite true, since we dont have to look for any images, its all provided.) and limited breaks.

well, end of the day, one can never be 100% satisfied with anything regardless of how good it is. so all i can say is... there's no complains (this stage at least).