Skye Soon
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Hey yall~

Yes, I am reviving my blog! And what's more, I have decided to keep to a regular schedule too! 

This blog will be updated every Sunday! That's right - it's ☀️Skye Sundays☀️ !
(Sometimes, there may be extra posts during the week too! For example, this post is out on Tuesday because it's time sensitive- the movie is still playing in theatres if you want to catch it~)


Schemes in Antiques 古董局中局
Released : 2021
Language: Chinese
Genre: Action, Drama

What's it about: (no spoilers)
(Modern) treasure hunters scramble to uncover a precious Buddha head. Expect tomb-raider adventure style puzzles, a dollop of humor and a wild rush to be the first to unravel the mystery that has been kept under wraps for generations. 



Xu Yuan (孙许愿) is our main character. He is our smart but lazy and dishelleved ruffian. The downtrodden guy with lots of potential but zero motivation in life. (He gives me kungfu panda vibes!!!)


His family is disgraced for being traitors during the war - his grandfather had given away a precious Tang Dynasty Buddha head to the Japanese. So Xu Yuan grows up in shame despite not actually commiting any crime. He has a lackadaisical life involving scams and fixing electronics. However, his real talent lies in his expertise in appraising ancient artefacts. He can tell a real from a high quality fake.

said Buddha Head

The story begins when his father (who abandoned him when he was young) dies in a car crash holding a coin tightly in his hand. Xu Yuan gets embroiled in the search of the real Buddha head when Yan Yan 黄烟烟, granddaughter of the antiques society's head, scouts him out to search for the truth. 

They go up against genius pretty boy Yao Bu Ran 药不然 (I do not lie. That's the name of the character lmao lmao) from the official antiques society, as well as sophisticated underground dealers that would not hesitate to get rid of anyone in their way. He's sleek, young, modern and also capable, the anti-thesis of Xu Yuan, who is old, crusty, and goes about things in a seemingly haphazard way.


Also from what I understand, the actor for Yao Bu Ran, 李现 is very popular! He's alright. That brown leather jacket tho.


Thoughts:

Irony: After reading about Buddha and his philosophies, it's EXTREMELY crazy how people chase his 'image' in the form of a statue, what more lie, cheat, beg and steal just to retrieve it. Don't even talk about the bloodshed. Buddha will definitely not approve~!

This isn't a kungfu movie per-se - don't expect Shangchi level of fighting sequences! There is drama, as well as twists and turns but no tearjerking moments. It's a fun romp with humorous bits here and there.
 
This movie is a welcome change for me because I have not watched Chinese action films in a long, long time! 



I was reminded of the Zodiac movie of Jackie Chan, something I've watched when I was younger.  I was also reminded of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, where the team just troops around solving mysteries using obscure clues and references. Cool.

Overall I think this is a fun adventure movie anyone can enjoy. 

I am very pleased that Clover Films (a regional film distributor in Singapore) has been bringing in Asian movies! I've also watched Till We Meet Again (月老) which features some of the cast of 那些年 . It is also a 九把刀 movie. New fan of Clover Films!!! Can't wait to watch American Girl (美国女孩）although it looks absolutely heart-wrenching. That will be next on my list! 

Watch the trailer below!


Ciao!

Love,
Skye



Hey friends! How did your year go?

It's time for the yearly affair of picking out the top books from my read list. This year I managed to hit my goal of 100 books, hurray! 

Art Books: 8
Comics:10
Fiction: 52
Non-fiction (including autobiographies, self-help etc): 31
Total: 101

Though the good news it that I finished my challenge, the bad thing is that I read many unspectacular books so this year's list is rather short. I guess this is just a natural process where I just have to read widely to separate the wheat from the chaff. Ah well.

Fiction


All The Names They Used For God
A splendid short story collection.



Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Oh, the joy of not reading an overly depressing sci-fi novel! It was a heart-warming story. Fun read by the author of The Martian.

On this note, Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem is getting a Netflix adaptation! I'm so excited for this.

The Bone Maker by Sarah Beth Durst
Great story-telling.

Firefly Lane
This book has its own Netflix drama adaptation! I really enjoyed how the theme of friendship through the times was explored.


Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong
Set in the mountains of Mongolia, Wolf Totem is an epic, intense read where a wolf pup is raised in a village that both hunt and fear it. 


A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
An absolutely enjoyable fantasy tale of parallel worlds!




Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
Loved this! Race, history and hero tropes are explored within this magical, fantasy coming-of-age novel. 

Super Fake Love Song by David Yoon
Cute and quick read.

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
Preacher goes to space. Interesting premise though it can be draggy at times.

Eartheater by Dolores Reyes, Julia Sanches 
Girl gains information about people and events by eating earth. 


Non-fiction


Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Korean-American author shares stories about her Korean mother, identity and cultural practices of being Korean and living in the USA. Moving and poignant. 


Is It Really Green?
Informative and snappy look at green practices and their supposed effectiveness or efficacy. Useful! 

Personally I pursued my interest in Buddhism, the universe, art icons like Andy Warhol and also historical figures like Genghis Khan. I also read some autobiographies and books by Obama, David Attenborough and restaurant owners.

Singapore

On a whole, I had a good year with #Singlit!


The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal 
Join the Shergill family for a dramatic adventure in India. I thoroughly enjoyed this fun romp of a book! 



Impractical Uses of Cake by Yeoh Jo-Ann
Not perfect with its manic pixie dream girl plot device but still interesting though kind of sad.


This is Where I Won't Be Alone by Inez Tan 
A fun and refreshing short story collection that is a lovely addition to Singapore literature! At times thought provoking, absurdly funny and poignant.



Regrettable Things That Happened Yesterday by Jennani Durai
Superb short story collection!



Eating Chilli Crab in the Anthropocene: Environmental Perspectives on Life in Singapore
by Matthew Schneider-Mayerson
Wonderful collection of essays on nature and environment in Singapore.

Art



Japanese Notebooks by Igort
This art book was so moving and beautiful. I really enjoyed it and want to borrow it again! 

•·················♡·················•

Moving forward, I will continue this new practice of borrowing art books because they kick-start my engine to be creative! Sci-fi and fantasy are still my favourite genres. Not too sure what to read next year, what do you think? If you have any book recommendations, chuck 'em book titles over!

For my whole book list of 2021, click here.

Happy reading!

Love,
Skye

Oooo I have not posted here anything in ages!

What I have been busy with:

  • work, as usual
  • being mired in a semi-mental breakdown
  • trying to be productive

I wanna share two ~slow~ vlogs with you guys! I super love these videos and aspire to lead such a sloooow, peaceful and enjoyable life.

The first one is a slow day preparing a bento set, drinking tea, etc. I love how everything looks so nice and cosy~


Imagine having a hearty bento meal from a wooden bento box! How warm~



And look at this! What a beautiful tea pot! They also use this pretty leaf shaped filter since the pot doesn't have a tea leaf filter.


The second one features an English countryside vibe (it's actually in US near the Hudson river). There are horses, ducks, a cutie pig and other farm animals! Hiking, forests, vinyl, coffee pouring, dancing, etc. Love it.


Is this a dream???


Art wise I borrowed a How to Draw book and have attempted realistic sketching for the first time ever! The world really opens up when you put your heart to studying something. Now I know a little more about light and shadows though I can't execute them well. It's fun though crazy challenging! I post my sketches as stories on my art IG (chubbycat88).

There are tons of things I want to draw/design but there's a huge gap between my skills and my ideal image! I know this was take time so I will just be patient and try to catch up. 

a sketch of my palm

Also big shout out to my understanding friends who have been checking in and giving me support through this loooow time of mine. It really reminds me of all the other low times I had when I was younger. Same old same old patterns of wanting to retreat and hide from the world. However, it just seems so terrible this time because I have not felt like this in AGES.  Hope it passes as December is usually the month I enjoy the most. 

The end of the year is a also a time for reflection. Been doing some of these journalling prompts from Leah's field notes.



Doing this every day is too much of a commitment for me but I try to keep them in mind. Maybe I'll try answering one or two a day. 




These are useful in trying to streamline processes though and maybe speed up the process to be who you wanna be! I should definitely journal more! I have to resist the idea of getting more notebooks though! XD

I've also done a time audit and figure out how much 'free time' I had.

First I calculated my work hours and time spent travelling.
I estimated about 2h for all my meals, 1h for all grooming activities (shower, toilet, brushing teeth, flossing etc). And of course, about 8h for sleep (1/3 of the day).

We have only a couple of hours left for whatever! But it's a scattered few hours throughout the day, so I have to find a way to be more efficient with them. Every day is truly a war of energy v.s. time. 

I hope to spend my few 'me-hours' for more creation (art, music, writing, connection). Things that can be obstacles:
  • exhaustion (feeling physically tired)
  • laziness (feeling unmotivated)
  • chores (actual things that need to be done around the house, paper admin work)
  • distraction (YouTube, IG, 5min turned 2h of Genshin)
Some days I'm all pumped up and others I just flop around and sulk or whine a lot. Well I hope I make the best of what's left of 2021 though! Going to make some wrap-up posts soon! (100 Books, art vs artist etc). Looking back at some of my old posts and creations can be crazy cringe-y, but I think everything made me into what I am today...I guess. XD 

Ahh, I've missed blogging! I'll be back here more often. Again, my blog sometimes becomes more personal while at times I want to be more 'commercial'. Lol. Sorry for the chameleon changes, I can never stick to one style.

Love, 
Skye



Hey friends! How's it going?

Last month I visited Adventure Cove at Sentosa and decided to illustrate it~ Went for a cute pastel crayon look.









Additional tips for your visit:
  • It's natural to want to go barefoot around the water park but it is a HUGE MISTAKE! 
    The park is covered with a painful pebble pavement, probably to prevent people from slipping and falling. We saw many people hobbling about though! It was heartbreaking to see tiny children screaming to their parents 'pain!'

    Worse, the afternoon sun BURNS up this pavement.The soles of my feet were really scorched and turned red. Does Sentosa know about this? Yes. Their solution? To get their staff to pour buckets of water on the ground while you queue. Does it work? Only if you're in the queueing area. Every other path without staff, you're subject to this hot, painful ground. Footwear is not allowed in the attractions, but there are shelves so you can deposit them before you go onto the ride. So wear your slippers around! Hope this helps!
  • Officially outside food is not allowed but due to Covid the restaurants in the park are all closed. Only kiosks selling hotdogs, nachos and the likes are available. 
More thoughts:
  • We got a peek at the dolphins and their trainers. These marine mammals were beautiful and strong, but they definitely do not belong in this tiny artificial space. We are definitely not supporting their dolphin activities. 
  • There is a snorkelling area which is a good controlled environment (compared to the open sea) for kids I suppose! We didn't care for it though. 
  • The turtles were wonderful but also had red painted numbers on their shells (so staff can keep track of them? Uhhh)
  • Electronic lockers are pretty nice and fuss free! They cost $10 for a small locker and $20 for a big one though. At Wild Wild Wet you have to tie a tag around your wrist. 

That's all from me! It was my first time at the water park and I did enjoy myself (enough to make this comic, lol). For more illustrations, check out my IG account @chubbycat88. 

Seeya!

Skye







Ladies and gentlemen, today we have an exciting SHOWDOWN!!! of two bars of Chunky KitKat!


Price
Valu$ : $0.60
ShengSiong: $1.80

I decided to do a comparison since the difference in price is three times! That potentially means that I can buy three times of chocolate if the Valu$ chocolate is of similar taste and quality. A worthy experiment 
to uptake right?

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a professional chocolate critic. 

Country of Origin
Valu$ : Turkey
ShengSiong: United Kingdom




Packaging
Packaging wise, the 'Sustainably Sourced Cocoa' label was more evident on the UK one, though both had the 'Cocoa Plan' label. 


Weight
Valu$ : 38g
ShengSiong: 40g


Expiry Date:
Valu$: 30/04/2022
ShengSiong: 01/2022

Taste Test!


I tried the Valu$ chocolate first, then washed it down with some water before trying the ShengSiong one. 
 
Let's check out the cross section: 

The colours of the chocolate and wafer layers are visibly different.

Chocolate

Valu$ : Chocolate is darker in colour. Seems to be on the sweeter side.

ShengSiong: Chocolate is lighter in colour. Chocolate has an astringent aftertaste (in local terms, a bit siap!) I checked it out online and this is most likely due to the cocoa beans used.

The colour of the chocolate is also correctly reflected on their respective packaging. 

Wafer

Valu$: At an acceptable level of crunch (sometimes you get soggy wafer biscuits)

Shengsiong: A good crisp and crunch! It also seems to have more layers!

Verdict
For the casual KitKat consumer, the Valu$ chocolate is definitely value for money. That being said, sometimes chocolate from Valu$ can be a miss and you may end up with a soggy wafer (happened before to me). For a more fail safe option (prioritising the crunch) , purchasing KitKat from ShengSiong or other supermarkets may be preferred. 

From a scale of:
CNY coin chocolate being 1, packaged chocolate like Cadbury and Hershey being 5 and fresh, smooth, fancy chocolate from actual chocolatiers being 10,

Valu$: 4 (Due to a less satisfying crunch)
Shengsiong: 5

As for me, I'm willing to sacrifice a little wafer quality for a third of the price. How about you? Have you compared the quality of parallel imports? Do they really taste very different? Tell me your experience!

Love to my fellow Choco-addicts,
Skye

Hello friends!

Well, well, I have finally completed another project. Phew! It is the most challenging and ambitious one to date! Here it is if you have not seen it yet:


Background of the song 

Broken Record is a song by Korean singer GSoul! (He changed his stage name from GSoul to Golden and back to GSoul...) He has a smooth, beautiful voice that I would really call 'golden'. 

Fun fact: He trained under JYP for fifteen years before he made his debut! He later also signed with Jay Park's label, H1ghr Music. 

After watching SMTM I have been discovering Korean artists left and right. (My favourites are now GSoul, pH-1 and Mirani!)

I've actually watched a video of GSoul with Jay Park in some video challenge, but only delved into his songs after he performed Hero with Khundi Panda on SMTM. 

'Broken Record' is one on my favourites of his album 'Hate Everything'. I also listen to End of the World, Tequila, For You and Stay:tempus a lot. 

Producing the song

Usually I use Mixcraft on my Windows PC to record my songs. This time I tried recording it on Garageband on my new Macbook. I played with a lot of samples! Finding the right sounds and textures was really challenging.

Starting with a blank canvas.

I changed the main idea of using keys and added in a lot of bass and electric guitar. I also added a more electronic feel to it though I retained the 'funkiness' of the song. I tried my best to keep each recording and layer  as clean as possible!

After I laid down the instrumental track, I got started on recording. Sounding 'cool and relaxed' is actually very difficult ! x__x 

My favourite part to record is probably the last chorus - where I allowed the singing to be more 'free'.

Some of my notes. I mostly recorded in July whenever I had time before or after work!

Sometimes I record a good take and realise that I didn't even plug in my mic. 🤦


When music production was done, I started brainstorming for the next stage - video production!

Planning the video

This time I roped in my friend Chloe (Hui yi) to help me with the styling for the shoot, and Si Min to help me video and take photographs. 

I drew a storyboard and we came up with concepts and plans for the scenes. Also sourced for a bunch of props though we didn't use some in the end! (Balloons, cookies... etc)


Production Day

We had a tight schedule of 2 hours for the shoot, and I'm glad we managed to make it! Big thank you to my team! 

Some of the pots you see in the video are in fact sculpted by Huiyi! 

Group selfie after wrap!


Going forward I would improve on:

  • At least 4 takes of the same scene for more editing choices
  • More angles
  • A stabiliser for the camera for smoother (moving) shots
  • Remember not to block important styling objects like this gorgeously styled table....

Editing
The main takeaway from editing is that Adobe Premiere Pro is indeed superior to iMovie. Why? Mainly because Premiere allows multi-track editing while iMovie restricts you to a pathetic two track editing! That includes transitions and music, omg please. How frustrating! (Trusfating, lol)

I first selected clips and figured the general flow, trimming clips and etc for about 2 hours. (2am-4am)
I somehow managed to wake up at 7am to continue editing till 10am. I then edited from evening till about 10 p.m. when I published the final video. Phew! My eyes were burning. Why the rush? Well I have an upcoming busy week with my day job and I already burnt a lot of time on this project, so it was important for me to finish this. 

The total time taken is about ~10h, including render time. I hope to be more efficient next time!

Things I learnt:
  • How to avoid 'dirty frames'
  • Using the warp stabiliser
  • Doing the reverse video shot cleanly.
I still suck at color grading but that''s an entire job on its own so I'm not too sad about it. Maybe I'll get a newer version of Premiere so I can use the color presets...

Thanks to my BF for watching the video countless times with me to check for any problems. 
Also, the fact that I'm not annoyed with this song even after listening to it so many times is testament to the fact that it's a really good and catchy song. Good choice for a cover. HAHA! 

Reception
Most people found the video funny and entertaining! My family liked the silly dancing the most (last chorus). 

Honestly sometimes I felt stressed or uncertain about the project but it's very typical of me to have cold feet symptoms before events or projects like these. I'm glad I still bit the bullet and persevered to the end though! 

What's next?

I am probably going to work on some smaller projects and find inspiration for my own original music! Maybe next year I will attempt something like this again, with a bigger team? We'll see!  

Thanks for reading and for being here!

Till next time,
Skye

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ABOUT ME

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

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