Skye Soon
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Hey guys!

Just logging in for a quick update.

Circuit Breaker is almost over, I hope. The days go by in a blur, but I have been kept busy, and am thankful for it. Anyone else feeling like they have around the same amount of time, or less?

This post is going to be the classic update kind on my life.

───── ⋆⋅☆EXERCISE☆⋅⋆ ─────

Workout wise, I have started to skip YouTube workouts in favour of my own cocktail of exercises. They look something like this:

60 squats
80 jumping jacks
40 crunches
30 bicycle crunch
40 mt climbers
20 crunch raise
40 heel touch
25 leg raise
40 reverse lunges
20 fire hydrant each
5 pushups
2km run
1min30 plank

I just switch around, usually doing 20 reps before changing to a different exercise. Sadly I have been putting on more weight though, and according to the Xiaomi scale at home, IT AIN'T MUSCLE! T_T Sobs. Nevertheless I find that exercising every day makes it less difficult than intermittent, on/off exercising - I usually can't catch my breath in those sessions.

───── ⋆⋅☆BOOKS☆⋅⋆ ─────

What I have been reading:

The Golden Compass trilogy by Philip Pullman
Managed to borrow the omnibus version that carries the entire trilogy from NLB e-books! I enjoyed only Book 1 and 2... Book 3, The Amber Spyglass was a mess to me, and I found it dreadfully boring. The last few chapters were exceptionally appalling in terms of character development too. I felt like the endings were slapped on in haste.

Also watched the movie, but it felt really choppy as compared to the book. Am looking forward to finishing the trilogy so I can check out the HBO TV series instead! It looks quite promising.

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
It started off being rather off-kilter and bizarre for me, but soon the plot development had me hooked. Really glad I pushed through for this one! 4/5 stars.



Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Slow book about an urban legend in Japan where you get to visit the past in a charming basement cafe. Not a big fan though. No rating, I don't like to rate books that I did not enjoy.

While I am not against reading e-books, I really much prefer doing the browsing in a physical library. Really looking forward to that when the Circuit Breaker is over.

───── ⋆⋅☆MOVIES☆⋅⋆ ─────

Also caught Kungfu Hustle (功夫) by Stephen Chow and it is hilarious! Really fun to watch. Slapstick humour is really amusing in these dark times.

Weathering With You (天気の子) was lovely too. I'm so glad that I finally get to watch it!



I also started watching plays and musicals such as Rosnah by The Necessary Stage (what a brilliant actress Siti Khalijah Zainal is!) and Mama White Snake by Wild Rice. Funny and entertaining.


Unfortunately I missed a few from Pangdemonium cuz I was so lazy. Oops.

───── ⋆⋅☆PERSONAL☆⋅⋆ ─────

☆ Downloaded a free habit tracker and jazzed it up with my favourite characters!


This really motivates me to complete my daily goals like taking my vitamins, exercising and practising.


☆ Been having strange but wonderful dreams. One was about a realistic looking dragon, probably modelled after Haku in Ghibli.We were all linking hands in the sea, when the dragon shot out of the waves and swam around us energetically. It was both terrifying and marvelous. As the dragon brushed past us, its scales created patterned abrasions on my legs.

☆ My friends and I also started doing Johari and Nohari Window quizzes. Basically you choose 5-6 traits you think you have, and your friends choose 5-6 of you as well. It's really interesting to see how different you view yourself compared to how others view you!

The Johari Window


It's funny because people view you differently in different situations and contexts. For example, your colleague will choose very different words compared to your best friends.

The Nohari Window
This is actually incredibly difficult when you need to choose flaws for your friends.
I do think the window can be improved as some words are too similar. Perhaps they could add traits like quick-tempered, rude, conservative, racist, and as my friend suggested, elitist.


I chose childish, chaotic, self-satisfied, rash, boastful and lethargic for myself. (Lethargic mostly because I felt like my friends would pick that HAHA). What would you pick for yourself?

───── ⋆⋅☆FOOD☆⋅⋆ ─────

My dear friend Lee lee sent over some ice cream, and I used the Kyoto Matcha flavour to make a milkshake! The frozen bananas give the milkshake a very Korean flavour (probably reminds me of banana milk).


Other food discoveries include Houjicha with Yuzu.

My sister's friend gave us a Houjicha yuzu with white pearl bubble tea drink, and we really enjoyed the combination, so we have been recreating it at home.



I also received a Nutella pie, thanks to my BF heehee! The dark chocolate goes really well with the Nutella, and the pie is topped with crushed hazelnuts. It's from Elijah Pies if you're interested.

Meanwhile my sister and my mum have been doing most of the cooking every day. My sis cooks Korean stuff like honey fried chicken wings, cold noodles (naengmyeon) etc, and tomorrow we are having Kimbap! We also had a huge mala pot, steamboat yongtaufoo, Taiwan style fried pork chop, spinach soup, curry, and lots of Chinese dinners. We sometimes also order delivery like tandoori chicken, Poke bowls, Thai food and tze char. I actually have not done much cooking since CB started.

My sis also made it to Subtle Asian Eats HAHA Congrats


───── ⋆⋅☆FRIENDS☆⋅⋆ ─────

☆ I attended my first Gender Reveal Party...online! Haha I have not been part of such a massive online conference and honestly the energy was chaotic for me, but lively and fun too. It's a boy! Congratulations, Jess! :)

☆ Big thanks to my friends Chanel, Yu Ting and Jie Ting for sending me BBT, coffee and sangria! And thank you also to my sister's friends who send us lots of good stuff too.

───── ⋆⋅☆FIN☆⋅⋆ ─────

That's the end of this long post! Hope you guys are doing okay.

Love,
Skye

Hey guys!


View this post on Instagram

“𝙸𝚗 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚃𝚘𝚐𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛” #stnetschallenge ☀️🌈☁️💕 Hope this puts a smile on your face 😊 Big thank you to my friends and family for gamely joining me in this video!! 🥰 Composed & produced by Skye Soon
A post shared by Skye Soon ♡ (@speciallyi) on May 16, 2020 at 3:43am PDT


So I submitted this video for the #stnetschallenge. The competition requires you to compose an original song featuring the phrase 'in this together', and film a video too.

For the song production:
One night, I couldn't sleep because I drank coffee in the afternoon. So at 3-4am in the morning, I did the first draft of the lyrics and recorded a rough demo on my phone.

The next morning I opened my DAW and started the project with a drum beat, then I added my vocals and started layering in the trombones and keyboard. After that, I did my backing vocals and added one last layer of guitar to fill up the vocal space and make it sound fuller.

I'm trained classically in piano and have near zero experience in keyboard T_T will have to improve on that!

For the video:
I felt like people might use the multiple screen format (like in online conference calls) so I decided to go for a cute handmade feel instead! I left spaces for handwritten lyrics and also videos I collected from my friends and family.

There was originally more origami but the colours didn't work, so I used some stickers instead! The IKEA clips make great props too! The pompoms and patterned paper are from Daiso.

As with all stop-motion projects, my photo roll was just full of photographs.


The video wouldn't have been complete without my friends and family  who gamely participated in it! ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ

BIG thank you to:
Lydia, Melo, Wenxin, Zihan, Oli, Dori, Huiyi, Jiayi, Pepper, Eli, Yu Ting, Marshall, Ling hong and grandma, Jess, Alvin, my sister and my grandmother. Haha!

I hope you enjoyed the video :)

Love,
Skye
We all love the Mandpop ballads from the likes of JJ Lin 林俊杰 and Jay Chou 周杰伦, as well as the head-banging rock anthems from 五月天,  but sometimes you don't wanna stew in the same old depressing lovelorn breakup songs or bop, bop, bop, bop to the top.

A great alternative is RNB, Rhythm and Blues, a chillax music genre that often comprises buttery smooth vocals and sexy electronic beats that are influenced by hiphop, trap, jazz and funk.

Here's a look at some (newer) RNB artists making their mark in the Chinese music industry with their sick fresh tunes. Let's hang loose and chill!

Gen Neo 梁根榮
Singaporean singer-songwriter based in South Korea

Very sultry, swagboy confident vocals and a beast at production! 很帅气的音乐。



Gen Neo has collaborated with some big names like Henry from Super Junior-M, Fei from K-pop group Miss A, and more recently, released a song called MINE with Singaporean R&B princess Sam Rui. Also check out his cover of 人质 originally by Amei for a starter to see how he flips the song with his production.


Nigel Tay 郑伟杰
Malaysian born Berklee alumni who has appeared on singing shows like Sing! China 中国好声音 and 我的乐队

Possesses a "softer", dreamy vocal tone reminiscent of The Weeknd, infused with some Asian inspired vocal turns and jazz/funk grounding.  Excellent, creative vocal runs and arrangements too! His newest EP however has more of a light-hearted, 暖男 approachable pop quality meant to melt the teenage heart. Check out 一口浪漫 on Spotify!



KnowKnow
A hiphop artist from Nanjing, China, also known as DZ. 1/4 of Higher Brothers, arguably the first successful international Chinese rap group! Higher Brothers is also part of 88rising, a label primarily for American-Asian and Asian artists.  Just adding this song because it introduces you to Chinese hip hop too! I first got to know about Chinese and Vietnamese rap through 88rising. Much love.



Also I love this cover of RNB All Night and have been spamming my friends with it.



Hope you guys enjoy it! If you have any Asian RNB artists to introduce me, I'm all ears. Just leave a comment below, I'll love to check it out.

P.S. Shout out to the older Mando-RNB artists like Cao Ge, Khalil Fong and Eason Chan for paving the way for new artists!


Hey guys, what's up?

I stumbled upon this YouTube video which promised to be game changing. I gave it a go and to my shock it lived up to its promise!

This video shows you how to colour match your clothing to your skin to look better! 

You may find yourself shopping a lot but never seem to look and feel good in colours that are supposed to look good on you. Why? Sometimes it's just a mismatch of clothing to the shade of your skin.


For example, look at Blake Lively! She's dressed in pink, but different shades make her look different. 

Perfect colour match
Still looking good in magenta but not AS good as the paler pink. Quote Chanel: Blake looks livelier in the pale pink.
Alexandra from YouTube also shows us examples of Rihanna, who is a warm tone.

Perfect!

This red is too bright for her warm tone skin.
Cool tone white, which doesn't look as good as...
...Rihanna in warm white! Glowing.
When you don't colour match...
When you colour match!
Find out if you're a soft or clear complexion person and match your clothing hues accordingly!
After this video I went to study my old outfits on my IG and... shockingly I found out that I don't look good in black, one of my favourite go-to colours! *jaw drop*

That's cause I'm a soft complexion person (warm tone skin + dark hair).

It was 1AM but I threw open my wardrobe doors and studied the colours of my clothing, and my friend Linghong and I discussed the theory lol. She also made a handy recap of the video.

╓════════════════☆════════════════╖
Fashion Color Theory
✎Notes from @elahge

#2 shade
- shade match => anything that matches your shade / darker
- pale wont work well

#3 undertones
warm tone = warm clothes
cool tone = cool clothes

#4 match soft & clear colors with soft vs clear complexions
- soft (small diff between skin & hair)
- clear (high contrast between skin & hair)
╙════════════════☆════════════════╜

So according to the video, I should go for warmer tones like this orange, rather than bright saturated colours like this pink-ish red?


And navy blue would work better for me than black.



Linghong also sent me an autumn palette for reference. I currently only have two or three of these colours in my wardrobe!

So I raided my sister's wardrobe for testing, since I don't have the colours I needed.

This might work?
Maybe? At this point I'm not sure anymore.

This colour has worked before... I'm not sure.
My jeans... I think I look best in the middle colour. 


Well.

I'm still not 100% sure which colour is best for me, but the next time I go shopping for clothing, I will definitely keep this colour theory idea in mind!

Hope you find your colour match :)

Love,
Skye
I forgot to recap this one. Was excited to watch it because it was #asian and starred #awkwafina.

It was pleasant to find relatable moments like this:





This scene may seem mundane but it is #SOTRUE. Happens every other day at my house. LOL



This happens at home too. I can relate to Billi's cheeky personality! 

The grandma fashion is SPOT ON. Really reminds me of my ama too.



A tricky conversation on film - whether you're still Chinese if you immigrate to the US. One brother says yes, the other begs to differ.





Some aesthetic shots.



I don't want to give too much away so I'll keep this brief. Movie's pace is of the slower variety, befitting the theme. Do not expect a feisty kind of Asian movie full of comic relief or action.

It's a personal tale of love and family, with a quite a few literal discussions of western vs eastern values and methods in dealing with family matters. Overall it is still a moving film and while it will not be on my list of favourite films, I'm glad this movie exists and hope it will continue to pave the way for more Asian cinema on a global stage.

7/10
Heya,

Have you been well? I haven't posted in ages so I thought I'll share some movies I have been watching recently.

Bad Education
We stumbled upon this movie starring Hugh Jackman as a charismatic school superintendent. Everyone loves him, everyone trusts him. A young school reporter then starts to uncover an embezzlement scheme that rocks the entire district. Based on a true story. 7.5/10



Blade Runner 2049
This is the sequel of the original 1982 Blade Runner (which I have not watched). Gave this a go as Blade Runner was listed as one of the sci-fi greats. Turns out that the movie is terribly slow paced and is almost 3 hours long! I watched it at 1.5x speed and am glad that I decided so. Don't feel any particular connection to any of the characters nor care much for the story, so I would not recommend it.  /shrugs  I will group this movie with Tron, Arrival and Ad Astra, in my pile of disappointing sci-fi movies. It also does not help that I cannot understand Ryan Gosling's appeal.  4/10



Next, I will talk about two French animations that looked intéressant, but oh god they ended up so much darker than I thought. The one other story that springs to mind when I think of French stories would be The Necklace, which is yet another tragic story.

I Lost My Body (Netflix)
You follow the journey of a severed hand, and finds out how it gets severed. I dislike the film for its stalker and suicide themes. Maybe the movie is about walking out of depression and finding hope but it mostly left me upset and wondering what the point was. It's not easy to feel uplifted by the film, and I could not empathise with the character as well, maybe because he was quite realistic (and depressed).  Proceed with caution. 4/10


My Life as a Zucchini (Ma vie de Courgette) (French/Swiss)


I was drawn to the cute looking stop motion and did not watch the trailer. Turns out the little kid in the film was about to be orphaned, and the story touches on some dark topics. The kids in the orphans have haunted pasts, including druggie parents, murders, alcoholism and abuse. The film captured the little joys of children very well, such as the silly jokes and things that make they laugh. Innocence
and friendship is explored under the heavy blanket of real life obstacles (abusive family members that take orphaned kids in because of money, how voiceless children can be before law) etc. I found this film much more meaningful than the former. 6.5/10

Went to Google a little and this website says that there are about 17,000 orphans in Singapore. Foster parents and adoptive parents (the genuine ones, not the abusive ones) really have a big heart. Many times we get on with our lives but I hope to remind myself that there are always opportunities to help others. You just have to open your heart really wide, which is not an easy thing to do. But as I've read somewhere, kindness is a muscle. The more you practise it, the more it comes easily.

On a lighter note:

This young child reading Kafka!
Do the French really just eat fries for meals?

When Marnie Was There

Anna, a troubled asthmatic girl is sent to the Japanese countryside to better her health. She encounters a beautiful, blonde girl called Marnie in a mysterious marsh house.

This is one of the Ghibli plots I rather disliked. However, full marks for the graphics always. Therefore, 10/10 for the animation, 6/10 for plot.


The scallops even realistically slide down from its pile! Beautiful animation.


The Borrowers (1997)
After watching Ghibli's Arrietty, I discovered that it was inspired by a British book called The Borrowers. The Borrowers are little people who 'borrow' things from their humans and live with them in tiny houses usually under the house of their human counterparts.

I was just browsing YouTube on snippets of Ghibli's Arrietty (Did you know Tom Holland voiced Sho and Saoirse Ronan voiced Arrietty?) when I discovered two live action versions. The earlier film was released in 1997 and featured... a young Tom Felton and a younger Professor Slughorn. We just finished rewatching some Harry Potter movies so this was perfect.


Now the Brit version and the Japanese version is markedly different! The attitudes, personality, pace of the movie are completely different. They both have their charms but I will always be partial to Ghibli's version because the misc en scene is just too lush and unforgettable for me. (I think the main character, Sho, who is a little sick boy, is pretty meh though.)

Anyway, this movie is truly family friendly and light-hearted. Really reminded me of other fun movies I watched in my childhood. 8/10

That's all folks!

I hope you enjoyed these little movie reviews and hopefully find something nice to watch too.

Till next time!

Love,
Skye
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Skye Soon : lifestyle blogger in Singapore, street busker and enthusiast of chocolates and books

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      • end of may blog update
      • In This Together - #stnetschallenge
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