It’s the International Year of the Family !

International Year of the Family 2014

It’s the international year of the family. I know, or rather I didn’t know that until now. I do know that there are international food days and don’t really pay much attention to that but hey look! Year of the family sounds nice and aww, non?

It’s by National Day Parade 2014 and MSF and from 5 May to 16 June 2014, everyone can submit a Big-Hearted Story of a person or family that has made a difference in their lives. Ok kind of too late for you readers who just read this post for the story part now but do read on.

This year, IYF seeks to encourage big-heartedness within the community. It hopes for everyone to share the warmth of their family with others around them. As such, through the Awards, members of the public will have a great opportunity to express their heartfelt thanks to those who have made a difference in their world!

We would like to invite you to support IYF by taking part in the Awards and saying thanks to a special someone in this meaningful way! It could be a neighbour, colleague’s family, volunteer, teacher, friend, or even a stranger!

It might be too late for you to join the contest at the Big Hearted Family Awards website. ACTUALLY, it isn’t if you’re reading this in the morning. DEADLINE is before midnight 16 June (11.59pm) so just from the heart, I am sure the words will come out for you to say and nominate special someone/ family for the Big-Hearted Family Awards.

Nominate them and you might win NDP preview/actual day tickets too!

QUICK, QUICK, DO IT!

Remember, family doesn’t have to be blood related, it’s who you deem family or someone special to you.

You can also check out Care & Share , info which you can also help out in the community in Singapore. Yes. I know such aww togetherness and whatnot. You can donate or volunteer your services to various communities from there if you don’t know how to start.

You do realize, that not all volunteerism means going to an old folk’s place and cleaning or whatever right? You can contribute what skills you have to various groups that you want to help out.

That’s how it all starts in also being ‘special’ to others.

I help out in the cat side with Love Kuching by making videos and sometimes taking pictures which helps publicize the group and thus is also caring for the community.

It's MY family.

Need an example for how to nominate someone?

Well, I would write a bit about my parents. It’s not ONE someone but ehh, since it’s my blog I can write it. NYER HUR HUR. I know, that’s kind of like a cheatcode. But yeah, I can’t choose.

They’re both inspiring and in the medical line too. No, not as doctors but as the support who also work with patients or health care workers. Amidst all that, they also care for the family… AKA MINE. Ok, maybe this isn’t a really awesome example of what to write in your nomination but really, they had been there always and are super caring.

Sometimes if they see people on the streets needing help, like an elderly man not being able to stand up and lying on the street while others were just walking by (?!) they checked up on him and took him to the doctor and then to his home. Or staying with lost kids until their parents managed to find them. I don’t know, it might be also as simple as making sure that my grandparents are also ok and checking up on them too.

Yeah, it takes time and energy and effort and they DO IT. Which is totally inspiring.

Yeaaaah!!

Anyway, go nominate someone special to you in Big Hearted Family Awards!

Momento Mori: Too Fast Not Furious

With their seniors

Momento Mori actually was the first team to finish their production this year! They actually finished it on Wednesday of the third week and spent the rest of their time doing their own things.

Also, they were trying to be discreet so that they wouldn’t bug the other teams who were stressing out.

Heh, here they are showing their piece to their seniors who decided to visit them on the wrap party day!

Like my other team (The 4 of Us II), I didn’t want to watch their production since I wanted to be SURPRISED when I get to watch it with everyone else when it is uploaded.

Oooh the balloons.

They really work hard and play EVEN HARDER.

They shared!

Also, they were one of the most memorable teams in there too. Someone asked why did they have nail polish on and they answered, “Because… our instructor is a bimbo” and everyone burst out laughing.

No, (disclaimer alert) she is not a bimbo but she helped paint their nails since they had time for it like a group bonding thing!

Yam seng!

After the pulling of poppers, it was yam seng! Everyone got a cup of sparkly grape juice and started yam seng-ing.

It's food!

And once it was all done and everyone cheered, it was time to eat!

Gathering stuff...?

I was wondering what the heck were they doing… THEY WERE COMPILING THE CONFETTI ON THE GROUND and then they threw them at meeeee.

It was like a snowball fight but with confetti instead.

Dance Central!

After the floor games outside we all were ushered inside the tents where the filming of other teams’ production were at. Only this time, the set ups were removed and instead it was a giant projection of Dance Central on the screen.

Here’s the first two dancers for the game. It was a match between all the different teams there. Besides Dance Central, eventually there was also Rock Band.

All for fun of course.

Bounce!

Have a bunch of Momento Mori-s jumping in the dark!

Please go to N.E.Mation, like the facebook and then click on Momento Mori in the top 10 teams tab to like them.

They need as much support they can get. Look, look how many people liked their page so please get your friends and others to like them too.

The 4 of Us II : To the end.

One day more!

One day more~~~ That was pasted on the doors on Friday! It was wrap party day.

Still doing it!

Wait. What. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

The 4 of Us II were busily finishing up their files! Just the small parts to export and then save their back ups.

Still uploading!

Slowly but surely the files are getting into the main hard disk where all the backups are in. LAST DAY TO FINISH UP EVERYTHING, AHHH. I left the girls to do their things without me bugging them there and returned only shortly after before the wrap party would begin.

Their edit!

Yay! They could pretty much see how their whole video would look like.

I didn’t want to watch the full one because I didn’t want to be spoilered on how it’d be even if I knew the story.

I’ll watch the full version same as everyone when it gets online.

Sharing session!

Finally, everyone had to save and leave their tents and get to the briefing area where the wrap party would start. Yes, there are lots of balloons there. They shared us about their experience and about the software and they did actually talk about their chrysanthemums.

Press it!

After all the teams shared their experiences, it’s time to party! They were all given poppers to use.

Confetti yay!

YAY!!!

Mr Joshua!

And then games were to be had. This is Mr Joshua hosting the game called “Hello Henry, Yes Henry, Tell Henry”.

It’s a really fun party game and it can get confusing. If you say the wrong thing, you get a dot of toothpaste on your nose.

Toothpasted!

Hahah, even their instructor (the one in the black jacket and pink pants) didn’t get it right! Don’t forget to like N.E.mation on facebook and like The 4 of Us II!

They’re in the studios at the day of this post! The 4 of Us II just has to export their Total Defence logo with their team name on it and also help clean up their tent.

Today is the day when all the equipment will be packed away so let’s cheer on The 4 of Us II to finish up all the files so they can finally rest at home.

Momento Mori : Shouting Out?

Their natural state.

Their natural state. Well, technically when I caught them like this was when they had finished the day’s work!

Don’t forget to like Momento Mori on the N.E.mation’s facebook. Click the top ten teams and then like Momento Mori!

Drink water!

Here’s Momento Mori cheering you on with water.

Drink water, it’s good for you.

Playing with the lights?

Anyway, somehow they were called on by the filming team by MOE? For some educational thing who visited N.E.mation to go around to the other groups and give shout outs to them.

Yes, it’s pretty much them going to each group and cheering them on.

It’s really random but it’s nice?

They are hard working though.

Finally they have learned that even by being ‘extras’ for a video, it takes a lot of time too.

Anyway they were happy to get back into their tent to do their own work!

The girl in the hoodie is not another student, that is their instructor. She was looking through the day’s work and giving comments on what was needed to be refined.

I gasped as she scrutinized TINY RAIN DROPS that bounced off an umbrella and circled them and gave suggestions to make it look more organic.

Animuuuu.

This is not their production but hey while they had the opportunity to use wacoms and just a bit of time, they’re just trying out the software on their own!

It’s no often you get to use these items anyway.

Sort of drawing.

And then they showed me their extent of their art skills which in THEIR opinion was not much.

In my opinion, it was quite a bit!

Even if their art skills were ‘not much’ they really are being stubborn and getting their animation done! So see, if you’re ever afraid in entering the competition because you can’t ‘draw’, don’t worry, the instructors are there to help you out.

While they won’t MAKE everything for you, they will be able to teach you enough and guide you to get your productions done.

Momento Mori is definitely giving their all to do this.

ALSO!!

Did you know their story’s voice over is actually Chua Enlai?

They were terribly excited when they listened to the voice over he did for their production.

Momento Mori didn’t get to meet him but they do get to listen to him over and over to get the timing right in their animation.

The girls hoped he’ll also support them by liking their team over at N.E.mation, hahaha.

Substicky Laufeyson. Kneel!

And now, I leave you with Substicky Laufeyson (it’s the pokemon Substitute) with all their other toys kneeling to him.

The 4 of Us II: The Middle

Animating awaay!

I visited The 4 of Us II on Tuesday, their second week. How did they fare?

I wanted to know how they were besides all the animating. Or at least with all the animating, how ARE they?

Apparently from the last I met them on the Friday before and in that short span of a day, everyone has gotten hyper and all “AUUGH” already.

Woosh, woosh!

They’ve been ‘over timing’ and will do so until the next week before one of their team members have gone off holiday with their parents. (See! Told you this was happening with a lot of groups.)

Even their instructor told them to take a walk on Monday when they’ve gotten really silly and doing weird things.

But hey, look. They’re indeed having good progress on their production anyway.

Perseverance, girls. You all can do it!

Cookie Monster!

Yes, that is a lot of Cookie Monster stuff.

Also, don’t forget to like the team on the N.E.mation facebook, under the top 10 teams app on the top and click The 4 of Us II!

Briefing for the day!

Naturally, they had to take a break too. If you don’t know the process, they come in around 8am and then continue working on, besides for lunch and dinner.

Oh and also for the ‘nightly’ briefing by the instructors. The briefing consists of any announcements to be made and about if their progress is ok and if the systems they are working on are doing well and that back ups have been done properly.

Eating food!

This is usually followed by dinner that the groups go down to get some food to buy at Koufu. Not to worry though if you ever want to join this competition, they got food coupons to spend on so that their food is already paid for!

They just need to ‘buy’ and eat.

Playing with shadows

It was during their dinner they told me what shenanigans have already been done in this second week. For one thing, after working so much, they’ve started to do shadow puppets against their tents.

London Choco Rolls

And that they got so hyper that they started to stuff as many London choco rolls into their hoodies and run back into the tents.

The current maximum number of London Choco Rolls that can be stuffed into a hoodie is 8, by the way.

Have you ever… heard the London Choco Roll song?

Just… Just sing that to your friends when you are bored.

Also, this is probably why their instructor told them to take a break and have a walk outside instead of continuing animating.

THE PRESSURE IS ON FOR ALL TEAAAAMS TO COMPLETE!

Their expressions.

Anyway, we also found out that the top 10 teams… Well, those who aren’t the top 3 (I think) will get Nintendo 3ds!

Guess who said that she will sell/donate her 3ds to someone if she gets it since she doesn’t play the games. And then guess who is appalled with the suggestion.

I think they’re doing OK. They’re still cheery and they’re still being ever so hardworking. Work on girls!

It’s just one more week to go and you’ll be done!

Momento Mori! Aka the girls from Tumblr

With their glorious purpose

“I like your shoelaces,” I said cautiously.

“I STOLE THEM FROM THE PRESIDENT!!” they screamed excitedly.

Momento Mori.

Apparently it was actually a typo of memento mori but it still kept the meaning pretty cool (moment of death).

These girls from CHIJ Saint Nicholas Girls’ School are really from tumblr.

Each one has their own fandom and they know if one is not working when their tumblr dashboard is refreshing with their own fandoms. This sentence totally does not make unless you are from tumblr too.

Hui Fen, Clara, Phoebe and Janelle are here holding up their carrot neck pillow called glorious purpose because… it looks like Loki’s horns.

It actually really does when you put it on your head.

Theirs is a colourful one.

BUT LET US GET to know more about what their production is! Their storyboard looks quite colourful, isn’t it?

Well, it’s all 2d and it will be typographically cute with vectory animations going here and there.

Think in the style of My Little Pony or Powerpuff Girls. That kind of vector graphics but with funky text fonts.

They're using wacoms too

They’re charging on all the way in week 1 because one of their members have to go by week 2, for a holiday. In fact I think this problem is amongst the other teams too!

You can’t say no to parents after all when it’s for a holiday.

But you can make up the work while you’re there.

Now, what IS their story about? Well, what I can say is that it has a lot of puns.

MORE THAN A PUNNET LOAD OF PUNS.

Puns enough to make me laugh hysterically and shove them in people’s faces to vote for the animation when it is completed.

That amount of puns.

Spot the odd one out.

Fun fact:

When you do get to see their video after everything, if you watch it carefully, you might notice one of the three soldiers is different! He’s the one with the pudgy stomach.

Food loot!

So far, these girls are one of the most excitable in the N.E.mation studio (it’s really just large tents in the NYP lounge room) and you can hear them once you enter the room.

They’ve made themselves home by having a boxful of food.

They would like to ALSO have a small shout out to team Dairy Products for giving them some food.

So team Dairy Products, thanks for the food.

It's totally Homestuck.

This is just the first week but from what I’ve seen of their work, they’ve pretty much have done a lot already.

Nothing to near completion of course but if they do keep up at this pace and if nothing dies or if no files get corrupted, wow.

They’d be done with some time to spare for double checking?

If they don’t get distracted by Tumblr, of course.

And here’s a few words from them:

Yessssssss. Can you believe that during their final pitch, they used this AWESOME line that they’ll get there “pun way or another” and it was met with “…” by the judges?

LIKE HOW I DON’T KNOW. But they got in and YOU can support their punny ways by liking their page here.

Or you can go to the N.E.mation Facebook page, click the top 10 team app and then find their name there! Do iiiiit. They need the support to win once their productions are up too!

Oh and this is set up by them if you want to follow too:

Find us on Tumblr: momento-mori-ne8.tumblr.com
Follow us on Twitter: @MomentoMoriNE8

Losing It

If this was one of those Upworthy headlines or Viral Nova articles, it would have started with “SHE IS THE BIGGEST LOSER BUT WHAT SHE DOES WILL MAKE YOU WEEP – So amazing” or something like that.

But no, this is a State of Sarah post so really.

Whatever.

Hey, yesterday I went to NLB‘s Customer Appreciation Dinner.

The food was great and wow, the libraries DO make note of those customers who contribute to the libraries whether as contributors or people who give talks there, write suggestions, role model library users etc. For each library, the staff do make note of those who come by and all.

And loooook. Besides the great food (and getting my friends to come along too), I won a pencil box at pre-event games there.

Oh yeah and this:

Online advocate award!

Not the phones, those are mine. I didn’t win those.

They are Nokia bar phones to be censor bars on it. HEH HEH, get it?

Anyway I got the Online Advocate Award by them for twittering/talking about library events and talking to their twitter/instagram accounts and also besides the cert, I got an upgrade of my library membership for a year!

And then I realized I was the greatest loser.

Continue reading Losing It

And so the previous conventions…

For a report on STGCC 2012, I’ve written it here on SGCafe. It’s Japanese centric so here’s just a few other memorable notes. For Andy Diggle’s panel, he says the question is not “How do I get in comic companies but how to get noticed instead”. It’s paraphrasing here and comic writing is more about cutting things out than putting it in since there’s limited pages or text you can have in a comic.

A good exercise is to start writing a story for 20 pages then cut the same story to 10 and then cut it to 5 and then see if you can cut it to 1 page.

So woaaaaaah.

A summary: STGCC was cool and I hope it’ll be even better in 2013 and really. Fix their ticketing system.

Read more on the other panels and stuff from Here Be Geeks!

And then, there was The Games Expo at the Singapore Expo Hall 5 last weekend.

Continue reading And so the previous conventions…

Bonus: Food and Commentary

This post will have mainly food pictures from my journey from Singapore to the USA and back again.

Warning: Do not read this unless you’ve had your breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack.

It’s mainly a food picture spam post. Flight meals are all by SIA and they’re all great. If you want my commentary, haha skip to the bottom of the post after ALL the pictures!

Continue reading Bonus: Food and Commentary