The results are out but I just wanted to still congratulate both my teams Duck Vaders and Spatium.
There was a performance before the results by QuickPick.
What you missed
In the words of Twitter, here’s what you missed.
YEAH!!! Congratulations to both my teams for making it to the top 10, Duck Vaders and Spatium.
Spatium got the 2nd Runner Up this year!
Hmmmmmm. Is it me or no matter if I pick or teams pick me to be their ambassador… at least one will be in the top 3? HMMMM.
Thanks to all those who voted for them too. Yay!
Singapore to Malaysia Train Ride
In other words, CHOO CHOOO!! So IÂ did get to Malaysia via train with tips from my friend Avarielle.
Of course I did read the Man from Seat 61 but Avarielle pretty much went to Malaysia often for stargazing via train that it was just easier to follow her tips for those in Singapore to get to the station and what to do there.
It all started when I went to Comic Fiesta last year and uh long story short, we got a calendar from Tony Roma’s Malaysia and that calendar has a coupon for each month. January was 15% off ribs.
I said to myself “Well, darn it. I want to use this coupon, what’s the closest TR in Malaysia from Singapore?”.
And then I googled and saw… Komtar JBCC.
And realized the TRAIN STATION was just across it.
Well, that was it. We’re going on a train ride.
This is how you take the train from Singapore to Malaysia, Johor.
Time to vote on NEMATION!
It’s time to vote on N.E.mation!!
How to vote:
1. Select the checkboxes of 3 of your favourite clips on https://nemation.sg/
2. Fill in your particulars.
3. Click ‘submit your vote’ and stand to win prizes! (Ipads!)
4. Voting is from 24 January to 14 February 2016.
WHO SHOULD YOU VOTE? VOTE FOR MY TEAMS In The Forces We Trust by Duck Vaders and The Big Puzzle by Spatium
BY DUCK VADERS, YAAAY.
BY SPATIUM! HUZZAAAH.
SEEEEeeeee. Nice right? Anyway, there are 4 ways to vote too instead of just voting one way. You can vote for THREE teams so choose Duck Vaders and Spatium and one last one ok?
VOTE 4 WAYS:
1) Website at www.nemation.sg
2) By mobile website, just go to www.nemation.sg on your phone.
3) On the facebook!
4) Or even SMS! Send it in the format: NE10 <space> WEB <space> C5, C9, C6 <space> NRIC <space> Full name to 76677
C5 is Duck Vaders and C9 is Spatium, the last C can be any other team.
Anywho, there was the picnic last week, while you guys might not have been there, it was quite a lively event.
The year is 2016
And I need you guys to help me achieve some things.
Firstly, I’ll say what’s going to happen and which ones would be the ones for youuuuuu to help me out!
- N.E.mation voting starts on 24 January to 14 February. I hope you guys will vote for my teams, Duck Vader and Spatium! You might win a thing yourself if you vote too!
- 14 February is Valentine’s Day. WATCH OUT as I state the exact time and date for a valentine’s day telemovie on Vasantham. This one is gonna be musically cool and FEELS. SO MUCH FEELS. AND MUSIC OK? So please watch this telemovie even if you’re anti-valentine’s day or what it’s gonna be NICEEEE.
- The weekend of Labour Day. Maybe it might be 30th April or 1 May because it’s a long weekend for then… We possibly might have the SECOND #nipplesg (Nothing In Particular People of Singapore) pending if we can get the location booked. If you’ve been to the first #nipplesg , we hope we can have a bigger #nipplesg of food, art, random talkings and book readings. Yes. We actually had a book reading and it was so lol. If this is a go, we’d need your help in sodas and food. BEST if can get sponsorship by Dodo or Handwerker. Hahahah we loved the fishballs and sausages the other time. Possible activities at this new location: Popiah/Taco party styled. And also actual fridge for ice cream. (Guest list: subjected to me and the main crew because it is STILL a limited space anyway)
That’s for the first half of the year you guys can help out with. Mostly just voting and enjoying yourselves, huh?
Ok, this is what I want to do.
- Train ride. I don’t know why it’s one of those suddenly I have to do it because. A train trip to KL or Penang? Penang would be nice, I’d have to take a ferry from Butterworth. Hotels in Penang, feel free to sponsor me a room and I’ll blog about it. /Jedi hands. Or if once I know how to do those, maybe a train ride to Bangkok?? (Go home probably via plane though because Changi airport is so much closer than Woodlands to me.)
- Comic Fiesta 2016. I don’t know where it is this year but it is a thing to do to check out and meet friends in Malaysia.
- 7 May !! I go for Spartan Super. You can still register for it.
- Be fit by end of February. Then be super fit by May for this. I like food but this means I also have to balance it out with exercising too.
Considering this is my blog, I can just post up my progress here for my own archival anyway. HELP ME GET FIT, YOU GUYSSS.
Places I have yet to go in Singapore:
- Amped – Trampoline park
- Climb Asia (once more)
- USE MY ACTIVE SG credits before year ends so see what fitness things can be paid with this.
This is just the first half-ish of the year. And not everything I want to do so, we’ll see as we strike it one by one. Ok, except for CF, that’s at the end of the year.
But yeah.
The Dog Days Are Over
The last week for production had been quite a ride for Spatium (#ne10c09).
From radio interviews…
To slamming down Tim Tam Slams with Duck Vaders…
They had to stop animating to get ready for the open house.
Considering they still had a lot to animate yet, it was cutting into their time as they worked together to display their jigsaw puzzle used for their story.
Still, the others worked while one of them presented and this was one of the rare times I got to see so many people in their tent.
Some people laughed at their joke about Spatium and no… I’m not going to say it here.
You can ask them yourself what is Spatium because there will be a time next year where they will try to garner votes from the public… IN PUBLIC.
When open house day was over, the team continued on with the work.
Apparently they managed to finish everything but just the dog.
The dog was so much work to make it look right that they split the parts of the dog to animate between all four of them.
It had come to this, animating and eating next to their stations.
At this point, they started to wonder why not a cat. A cat wouldn’t move as much as a dog but then, we don’t have sniffer cats… Do we?
chun was buried in confetti during wrap party #NE10C09 #prayforspatium2k15
A photo posted by Spatium #NE10C09 (@spa.tium) on
In any case, at the time of this post, YES they finally finished it!
HURRAY.
No more animating and now… They can chill and wait to show you their final product next year.
So watch out for Spatium!
Sing It!
Don’t they look cute in their illustrated form? That’s the Duck Vaders in their storyboards.
Anyway week 3 and it is their last week to finish up everything!
In the midst of animating though, they got to do some radio interviews just for you all to know who they are and garner your votes when it’s open in January!
And… welcoming guests like sponsors and even friends and family on their open house day to explain what they have been doing or why have they have to keep coming to Nanyang Polytechnic in the morning and leave at night for the past few weeks.
This is the only time you’ll see this screen because what all of you will see is the final product where their live action work is mixed with their stop motion graphics.
But after the open house activities, the Duck Vaders had to quickly get back to production.
They weren’t finished yet!
Most of their props had been folded and cut properly so what’s left is just making sure everything is supposed to be where it is.
There was a moment of panic where they misplaced their paper walkie talkie but thank goodness, they found it hidden on another table under another piece of paper.
A plane zooming…
But yes, come January, don’t forget to vote for Duck Vaders (#NE10C05)
They’ve put in a lot of effort of singing and rapping and then even animating their story.
Hope you all will get to see their work next year!
And it rained
This is not a review of Gion Dining because this post is more of a memory of what I ate there last Saturday.
Please go to other blogs if you want a review because I went there as a walk in and near the end of their lunch service.
But I needed to try it then because the previous few days I had the most disappointing Japanese food at some other place and that some woman was randomly sobbing at her table with her friends. I don’t know why, but what ever, I was just sad about my sad food and sad sobbing.
Thus, I went to Gion.
It was quiet since it was an hour to the end of lunch service and I did ask if walk ins were available. They said yes, I entered.
They passed me a tablet after I was shown to my seat.
I actually knew what I wanted so I managed to order it quickly since I had spent the previous day or so looking at their pdf menu online.
And so I waited.
The waitress told me pictures were not allowed of the menu and I went “Huh, very well” because… It’s actually already on their website and facebook.
No matter, I deleted them from my phone since I figured, I’m not going to review the place mat and cutlery setting anyway.
What I ordered… Their tempura set, tamagoyaki and wheat tea.
It did not take too long, the tamagoyaki was set upon my table.
I took a bite of one slice and oh. Oh my, it was warm and it was sweet.
Perhaps I should stop and wait for when my tempura set arrived. But no, I couldn’t stop myself since I was quite hungry.
The wheat tea came, the waitress poured the cup for me and I savoured it.
It had been steeped properly and it was real wheat grains if you were curious enough to open the top of your teapot.
Do not insult this tea with sugar for you should savour it as it is.
The food did come soon after.
Ah, finally a proper set. Pickles, a potato salad, a vegetable salad with vinaigrette. Chawanmushi, a small yogurt dessert in a shot glass and the tempura with its sauces and miso soup with rice.
The rice, it was fluffy. Warm and sticky enough for me to use my chopsticks. As I tasted it, I thought, “Ah yes, this is Japanese rice” for you can tell the difference in taste compared to normal or basmati rice.
They cooked their rice properly. It was comforting as the rain started pouring outside. The tea kept on steaming away in its cup as I left it to cool and dipped my tempura in its sauce.
Oh… it was crispy, the saltiness of the sauce glancing against the battered exterior as I bit into it. Not oily, just crisp and full of the sweetness of the prawn itself intermingled with the sauce.
What a balance.
The grated radish was garnished with fresh ginger, an interesting choice, I thought. It brought a bigger kick than what preserved ginger would have.
I looked out to the side where the other few diners were eating their food. Did they realized what skill this needed? It was far simpler than what other dishes they might have ordered and that was why it was even more impressive since it was the simplest which was easiest to mess up.
I tilted up the bowl of miso soup, taking a sip of it. It was light, instead of tiny tofu cubes as I came to expect from many places, in place were small Japanese mushrooms. A delightful surprise at this tiny detail.
The side dishes, I polished off quickly, darting my chopsticks back and forth.
I half wondered if there would be any other disaster would befall in Orchard as the rain kept getting heavier.
I dipped my small spoon into the chawanmushi.
Ah yes, it was still warm and it had been freshly steamed.
It was still soft, so soft.
Finally I managed to eat a proper chawanmushi for the week as I scraped the spoon trying to get every bit of it, clinging to the cup.
Pouring myself another cup of wheat tea, I started on my dessert.
A tangy yogurt to finish the meal.
The rain stopped as the last drops of tea was drunk.
I left since I had paid for the meal before the lunch services was over.
As I like to say to eating such delicious food, itadakimasu, baby.
Crunching Down?
Ah yes, we have come back to Spatium (#NE10C09) and what’s this?
A hand drawn Shia because they didn’t remember to print one of it. But alright, looks like they’re getting onto their work.
Ah yes, N.E.mation. Week 2 always makes the teams wonder why did they even join this because they’re all working continuously just to get their scenes done to see their project come to life!
Ok, dramatic much but yes.
I mean, they might have little or no animation experience and just for this competition, they have to complete a whole animated story in a few weeks.
One scene is done though. Hurray for saluting people. HURRAY! ONE DOWN. So just a few more scenes to go till completion.
I learned that for their team, the scenes are actually split up via difficulty. So we have level 1 to 4 and each of the girls have scenes according to what they can handle.
With that said, even with all of them having their own work cut out for them, they’re starting to create mistakes here and there.
WATER IS NOW BANNED in their tents or at least away from the computers…
But somehow there seems to be some accidentally spilled still.
I should mention, theirs is the first tent if you walk into the main area for N.E.mation and you might hear weird singing.
If you do.
That’s Spatium.
At the time I was visiting and look see-ing, there was repetition of “Beautiful knees, such beautifuuuuul kneesâ€.
The moon represents my heart.
Here we see someone animating a ‘level 4’ scene. This is how actual animators look like some times. I know because I’ve seen animators animate during crunch time before.
But hey, what’s that on the table?
A shame shame jar?
So far I see the money is made out of the koufu vouchers that all the teams get to pay for their food in NYP’s canteen though…
Never let it be said that Spatium aren’t good at trying to market themselves.
Whoops, their instructor is glitching while I panorama-ed.
The pieces on the floor are the jigsaw puzzles for their production. It’s the only place they can keep it safely so that no one would accidentally break it.
Onwards to week 3 where they have to finish their animation. JUST ONE MORE WEEK.
Also don’t forget to like their pages. SPATIUUUUUUUUUM.
Time for a break?
If you guys haven’t known what N.E.mation is, it is a competition where the teams animate their stories according for the theme for this year. This year’s theme is Together We Keep Singapore Strong.
And all these teams, yes, they have to animate it themselves so besides having their instructors guide them, they have to do all these things on their own.
MEANWHILE, Duck Vaders are having a hot cocoa break. Week 2 and they are still cutting and folding their props for the animation.
Break OVEEER. Here they are learning how to make their characters have more depth by folding the edges.
And they were SO SCARED to mess up in folding because they had cut so many pieces so yes, it is just that one step to make it look better but so scary if they made a mistake since they’d have to make it all AGAIN?
That’s the stress part.
Of course, I’m not telling you how their story unfolds (HURHUR) for the team because that would be revealing too much but it’s certainly about all walks of life helping each other.
Children get mitten hands and adults have fingers.
Go figure.
And they have a cameo too! Perhaps you might spot it in the background when the final animation is ready for you to vote for Duck Vaders (#NE10C05)
All they have to do is to start their actual stop motion animation ONCE they finish folding their people.
But first, a dance break is needed.
And remember, VOTE FOR DUCK VADERS… When voting is out in a few weeks. Hahahaha.
Lastly…
Don’t forget to follow their Instagram.