Enjoyable bus ride~

Juz had the most enjoyable bus ride for a veri long time, almost as far as i could remember even...

Becuz its you :)

Of getting lost in MacCritchie and pondering the irony of life...

After countless attempts to arrange for jogging sessions...yesterday, Mr Chua Bing Wei Justin, Cricket Lee Huiwen and myself finally came together for a run...a run dat i would come to think of fondly...for several reasons...

1. running in a group has reminded mi how enjoyable it is to run together.
2. this running session has introduced mi to MacRitchie all over again...esp the Treetop walk...nice walking trail~
3. relived the experience of my cross-country and army days of running in Mac...
4. ran longer than we thought...got lost abit...but nonetheless enjoyed tremendously...

Now if onli i felt that i have lost any weight...which i feel i haven :P

On a side note...history had to repeat itself...irony...oh well, hope she's for the better now...find a better guy...

"Proud to be shy!"

COM 443: A Reflection for Advertising #3

I just caught the movie "Julie and Julia" about a week back, and have to say, I enjoyed it. This is not the usual blockbuster kind of action movie that lack real substance but attracts crowds. It is more of a movie which after viewing...provides food for thought for the viewer.

On one hand, the movie portrays of the famous Julia Child(aptly played by the maginificent Meryl Streep), her trials and tribulations to getting her book published. On the other hand, the story of Julie Powell is played by the lovable Amy Adams, whose character decides to cook all 524 dishes in 365 days, and blog her progress in the process.

I believe the relevant aspect of how advertising could be applied in this movie is of how the character of Julie Powell had unknowingly advertised herself as a blogging phenomenon whom people looked forward to reading. Because of the attention she got as each blog post was uploaded, Julie knew that she had to watch what she typed in order not to get herself into trouble. For instance, there was a day when she did not have time to preapare the day's recipe unless she skipped work. Hence, she called in sick and reflected it on her blog that she was not feeling well. This perhaps in a way reflects advertising in the real world, where puffery and lies are told to capture the audiences' attention and impress them.

How another form of advertising (or lackthereof in this case) that could be found in the movie was when Julia Child and her co-writers had difficulty finding publishers who would publish their cook book. Perhaps it might have been a much easier and faster process should Julia had promoted herself and her cook book more appropriately to the publishers so as to impress them as much as possible. In this case perhaps, the lack of promoting and advertising skills were proven to be sorely lacking.

One aspect of the movie which i would like to focus on and still have no real answer to it is if the whole idea of publishing the cook book was because there was no such cook books in the market then, or because it so happened to be a novel idea at that point in time and a eagle-eyed publisher found her by sheer luck. While I would have liked to think that it was the former, the possibiity for the later seems higher, as research for such academic work seemed irrelevant at that time. As such, I would like to stress that in order to make a product work, we should look at the market and identify issues that cause trouble or can be improved, and then work towards creating a product which would help solve the matter.

All in all, I really enjoyed the movie, not only because of the perhaps subtle hints of advertising found in the movie, but also for the many other factors that make the movie such a joy to watch, such as the hardships and happiness of the different characters, how things were then and now, and the importance and cherishment of the people around you.

Something's wrong...

Somehow or rather...i've been bothered lately...something might or might not be happening...but it just doesnt feel rite, and i've gotta admit i dun exactly have the guts to speak my mind sometimes...despite how some might think otherwise...

shall try to put my smile back on...though being an facially expressive person means i cant hide things and emotions well..oh well..we'll see how it goes...



"Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. If you don't start with that, what are you going to end up with? Fall head over heels. I say find someone you can love like crazy and who'll love you the same way back. And how do you find him? Forget your head and listen to your heart. I'm not hearing any heart. Run the risk, if you get hurt, you'll come back. Because, the truth is there is no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love - well, you haven't lived a life at all. You have to try. Because if you haven't tried, you haven't lived. "

William Parrish from "Meet Joe Black"

COM 443: A Reflection for Advertising #2

Despite being through only half of the semester, I can honestly say that I have had a taste of what it is like to work in an advertising firm (even if its an very amateurish one at that...). The process of coming up with an advertisement, from the research, to the idea development and finally execution have taught me much, even if my group did not do as well as we could have...people have been dissappointed, people have been discouraged, but we'll learn to pick ourselves up...

On another note, our last advertising class had a guest speaker who used to work at one of the big advertising companies...one word...enlightening! He lectured on how the advertising world, or how the corporate world works for that matter, and cleared some misconceptions about advertising, especially about how an advertisement or advertising campaign comes about. Very enlightening, enjoyed it thoroughly...

After the short respite, we at Spatiality have gotten our next assignment. Let's hope this time we will not mess it up...lets do it well guys!

COM 443: A Reflection for Advertising #1

Of all times when I decide to update my blog again, it coincides with the timing that I have to blog about my thoughts with regards to my current advertising class. So here goes...

Well, first I have to say that this is definately one of the toughest courses i have taken since studying in UB, but its good because then i get actual hands-on experience on what the world of advertising (and perhaps the corporate world for that matter) holds for me.

Good fortune has shined on me so far with group members who are not only intelligent, but are complimentary in ways that make the group whole, and most importantly, good group dynamics. This is important i guess in making a team successful, a good and balanced cohesive team. Although my professor has said something enlightening...that a group that is too agreeable is not exactly a good thing...Anyway, my advertising group and I would like to present to you...Spatiality! Every space is our specialty!

Unfortunately,with the good, comes the bad. And so in order to ensure that we have a comprehensive theoretical knowledge, my dear professor has thrown us with 3 exams, with the first one juz a couple of hours away...and 7 chps at that...good luck to us all..

Perhaps it's because i am now in this course, I am looking out more for interesting ads that might prove to be an inspiration or idea(I will be careful not to plagarise...), and there are really some good ads around, as well as some flops. Looking forward to comparing some of the ads which we students have submitted earlier last week, I really want to see for myself if my evaluation skills for ads is anywhere near decent...

Until the next reflection...

Sean aka Stinko

Of many happenings..

I am too lazy for my own good...i'll admit that...but when i am on the ball...i still cant do much... :P

anyway...so i decided to be an OGL for the last short holiday...and...things happened...

i slacked throughout the preparations prior to freshmen orientation, to balance out the damn enthu OGLS...but i turned on the heat when it mattered...i mingled w/ my freshies, i shouted til i sounded 50 years older...bottomline...i was more proactive...so it turned out well...

and so then sch has started...again...and of all classes...i have to attend "Introduction to Chinese"....aka CHI 101...wat the............hell...