Happy Christmas 2009!

Just a quick message to wish everyone celebrating a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!! Hope you all had a brilliant day with lots and lots of pressies! Well, I didn't have lots, hehe - only one but its totally kawaii!!! A huge domou arigatou to the one who gave it to me, you know who you are! [big hug] I'll post a picture of the gift later! For now, here's an artwork I did this week to celebrate the occasion (Thanks for encouraging me, Pip!):

Oh yeah, Adeline celebrated her birthday on Christmas Eve, so ALLES GUTE ZUM GEBURTSTAG, ADS!!!

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

"Breathe is Life, Life is Yoga."

That's the tagline for OMPlace Studio, my favourite yoga studio!!! XD It's been too long since I did yoga - bad, bad Lin! Anyway, I decided that I've been doing too many long hours at work, leaving no room for me to pursue my other interests, yoga being one of them! :( So now, it's time to prioritise "me time"! So tonight's class was my official first day back at yoga, let's hope I can keep this up. I'm hoping that since I'll be on leave soon, it'll be easier for me to focus on "me time", hehe! Anyway, today's class was a bit tough for me, I haven't been doing any proper exercise for several months now, but I did the best I could, it was a good class. I can still do a headstand, a bit wobbly but at least, I managed! XD

Also, since I'm on the subject of yoga, let me just wish my yoga teacher, William and his lovely new wife, Jacky many CONGRATULATIONS on their wedding last Sunday! It was my first Chinese wedding, I enjoyed it tremendously! Thank you for inviting me!

Okay, time to say good night! Will try to update this blog more regularly, promise! ;)

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

My heart is definitely Skipping a Beat! XD

With respect to the post I wrote on 8 October 2009, it really does seem like I'll be doing "a post a month", haha!!! Anyway, just got back a few weeks ago from my holidays in Melbourne and a working trip in Tokyo! But don't really have the time to post up anything about them at the mo, this post is just a quick one - just wanted to show a scene from the latest Skip Beat! chapter (149):

"Ren-sama, what did you do to Kyoko-chan?!"

Hehe, you can read download the raws and translations from here! Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did! xxx

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

Greetings from Oz!

Haha... well, I'm definitely not in Kansas! ;) Finally taking some leave and decided to spend it visiting my cousin in Melbourne. But guess what, I'm still working on my holidays!!! My friend was right, I shouldn't plan my holidays too much in advance, especially when one has such a busy work schedule.. but what can I do? It's the only way to get good prices on flights! :( Anyway, since it turned out this way, I had to compromise - day time for holidaying and night time for working. Now it's well after 3 am, I should rest but still have work to do... luckily tomorrow is an easy day, not like this morning, where we had to catch a bus at 7.35 a.m. for the Great Ocean Road Tour. It was great, very scenic, saw The Twelve Apostles (though there are only 8 now, haha!) both on land and by helicopter (not included in the tour package!), Lock Ard Gorge, etc. Oh yeah, I saw kangaroos and ONE curled up koala on a tree (they're hard to see, very well camourflaged!), it was sooo kawaii! Hmmm, okay, I think I'd better go... I'm supposed to be working! Later! xxx

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

A post a month?

Just as I was just starting to get back into the ol' blogging mood, WORK happened! It's been non-stop with assignments, meetings, events, etc. And at the end of October, I'll be "block-travelling" for a few weeks - working trip, annual leave holidays and again, working trip!

Anyway, fortunately, I managed to get a breather from the work scene, but only for a few hours. Will be working again once this post is published. So am I stressed? Yes, I am! But it's a good sort of stress... but ask me again in a week or so, haha! ;p

Oh, yeah, Fifah celebrated her birthday last Tuesday - OTANJOUBI OMEDETOU, PIP! Hope you had a brilliant time!

Right, have to get back to grindstone! I will definitely try my best to post more from now on! xxx

p.s. All Skip Beat! fans, this happened in chapter 145! Oh my god! Nooooo!

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

Last minute ad!

Ooops, I was meant to post this earlier (Sorry, Rozi!) but better late than never!!!

"Rozi Yunos is offering decorative ketupat making services. For 4 rolls of ribbons that you supply, she will turn them all into ketupats for 15 dollars labour charge, and you will get 5 different types of ketupats (satay, raya, bawang, kikik, diamond) to give your home that festive cheer! If using her supply of ribbons (3/4 inch width), it'll be 50 cents per ketupat for the first 50 pieces, and 51 and above is 45 cents. You can contact Rozi at her blog for orders!"

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

Back in the game!

Haha, I'm finally blogging after months and months of silence, other than the occasional message on the chatterbox (which happened to have been deleted, so I got a shoutbox instead, hehe!). Anyway, I can't sleep! I keep thinking about an issue that's been irritating me for a few months now and trying to figure out what's the best solution! I mean, it's Ramadhan month now (Btw, Selamat Berpuasa to all Muslims out there! :D) and getting irritated while fasting - not good! But what to do, what to do?! Usually, I'd confront the issue to sort it out, but things sometimes work so differently here. -sigh- Insyallah, a solution will come to light soon. At the moment, all I need is patience. Oh, and sleep, hehe. It's almost 4 a.m. - had to eat something before fasting starts, though I wasn't really hungry. Anyway, going to go crash now. Later, all! XD

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

My first in lieu day off!

Woo hoo! I'm finally able to take my in lieu day off today! It's to make up for having to work on a Saturday last month! But you know what, I can't seem to get out of the normal working day routine. I woke up as usual at 6 a.m., had to call work around 8 a.m. and then msn-ed about work in the afternoon. Seriously! It's definitely got to do with having a day off in the middle of a working week. My colleagues must think I'm mad! XD Anyway, can't stay and chat - going with dad to watch a film called "Knowing"! Tschusssssss! xxx

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

Rapunzel I am not... XD

Hallo everyone! It's been a while, things have been major busy, serious! Some days, I don't even have time to open the internet browser! Anyway, just a quick post to show off my new hairdo, hehe. Yep, for those who knew me during my uni years, me with short hair is nothing new... but even so, it's been a while for me. I've had long hair for over a year so the new look took a bit of getting used to. But overall, I'm happy with the change - my hair's easier to manage, some people have told me that I look younger (that always makes my day, haha!), etc. etc. etc. Anyway, that's it for now - it's late and time for bed. Btw, I've decided to stop my weekly goals, 'cos it made me lazy about doing proper blog posts, hehe. XD Gute Nacht!

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

Weekly Goals: Week 07 [2009]

Yayyy, finally started doing yoga again! Hopefully, my fitness regime will be back on track on a more permanent basis from now on. XD Anyway, my weekly goals are:

Fitness:

• Saturday: Yoga (OM)
• Sunday: Yoga (OM) [X]
  

Miscellaneous:

• Social activities: lunch with Rozi (Mon); dinner with Jus & Kartinie (Mon); lunch with Irra (Tues); dinner with June (Tues); dinner with Nurul (Wed); lunch with Irra (Fri); dinner with June (Fri); birthday party (Sat); lunch with relatives (Sun)
• Shopping: bag; pre-wedding gift (for Irra); books; manga; cards
  
• Domestic chores: organise room [X]; pick up drycleaning; send clothes for drycleaning; tidy car [X]
• Manga list: Otomen (volume 4)
  
• Anime list: TRC Tokyo Revelations (complete) [X]; Skip Beat (episode 18); Natsume Yuujinchou Season 2 (episodes 5-6)
  

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

Weekly Goals: Week 06 [2009]

Here are my goals for this week:

Fitness:

• Thursday: Yoga (OM)
  
• Saturday: Yoga (OM)
  
• Sunday: Yoga (OM) or Gyming (FZ) [X]

Miscellaneous:

• Social activities: Lunch with June (Mon); William's studio opening (Mon); lunch with Olivia & Irra (Tues); family dinner (Tues); lunch with Olivia & Irra (Thurs); doa selamat for Nynna (Thurs); dinner with Pinah, Nurul & Nynna (Fri); Rizal's bersanding ceremony (Sun); dinner with June (Sun)
  
• Domestic chores: organise room [X]; pick up drycleaning; send clothes for drycleaning; tidy car [X]
• Cinema: Underworld 3 (Sat) [X]
  
• Anime list: TRC Tokyo Revelations (complete); Puppet Master Sakon (complete) [X]; Skip Beat (episode 17)
  

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

My first National Disaster experience!

And insyallah, it'll be the last - Amin! Anyway, here are some photos taken by Aniki outside our house on the night of the "Great Flood". My god, we had mild floods before but never this bad, it looked like a river was passing through our house!

At our driveway - Dad's the guy with the red and white umbrella!
The water got halfway into our garage!

Our "simpang" (the following two photos) - The poor neighbours! :( We were lucky!
Dad raised our land by several feet before building the house.

Our "backyard" - you can see our neighbour's house.
If it wasn't for the wall, I think his house would have been badly flooded.

The staircase at the back of our house - the water level reached the third step!!!

So that's what happened Tuesday-Wednesday last week! The result: major power cuts (we had no power for 3 days!!!), no water supply (fortunately, this only occurred three times, and the third lasted half a day!), landslides, traffic problems (due to traffic lights being down, destroyed roads, flooding in our major road tunnel, etc.) and the worst thing, two people drowned! :( So what happened? Why weren't we prepared? I hope this incident brought awareness with regards to the major changes that need to be done to Brunei's infrastructure and whatnot! Swift action, if you please!

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

A bit belated, but Happy Chinese New Year to all celebrating! May everyone have a prosperous year! XD

[Image courtesy of SilkySteps.]

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

Weekly Goals: Week 05 [2009]

Ack! An extremely bleak start to the week, due to heavy rains, flash floods, etc. I'll post photos later! Btw, no electricity at home, so this week's goals are a bit late in being posted! :(

Fitness:

• Thursday: Gyming (FZ) [X]
  
• Saturday: Gyming (FZ) [X]
• Sunday: Gyming (FZ) or Badminton (MS) [X]

Miscellaneous:

• Social activities: lunch with Yusri (Wed); lunch with Fifah (Fri); dinner with June, Siti & Yusri (Fri); lunch/dinner with Nynna, Nurul & Pinah (Sun); Rizal's nikah ceremony (Sun)
  
• Domestic chores: organise room; pick up drycleaning; send clothes for drycleaning; tidy car [X]
  
• Bill payment: DST (Sat); Telbru & e-speed (Sat)
  
• Cinema: Inkheart (Mon); Underworld 3 (Sat) [X]
• Manga list: Love Attack (Vol. 1-3 & 5); Cross x Break (Vol. 1-2); Song of the Hanging Sky (Vol. 1-2)
  
• Anime list: TRC Tokyo Revelations (complete) [X]; Puppet Master Sakon (complete) [X]; Skip Beat (episode 16)
  

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

Weekly Goals: Week 04 [2009]

Ack! An extremely bleak start to the week, due to heavy rains, flash floods, etc. I'll post photos later! Btw, no electricity at home, so this week's goals are a bit late in being posted! :(

Fitness:

• Saturday: Walking; Swimming
  
• Sunday: Walking
  

Miscellaneous:

• Social activities: lunch with Rozi (Mon); lunch with Rozi & Fel (Tues); Jus' b'day dinner (Wed)
• Domestic chores: organise room
• Travel: Singapore trip
  
• Shopping: books; manga; COPIC Ciao Markers 72-Set A [X]; COPIC paper [X]; work clothes; shoes; CK Contradiction perfume [X]; toiletries
  
• Anime list: TRC Tokyo Revelations (complete) [X]; Puppet Master Sakon (complete) [X]; Skip Beat (episode 15)
  

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

Weekly Goals: Week 03 [2009]

What's with me at the mo? I'm tres procrastinating! :( Argh!

Fitness:

• Tuesday: Yoga (VDA) [X]
  
• Thursday: Yoga (VDA) [X]
• Saturday: Gyming (FZ) [X]
• Sunday: Gyming (FZ) [X]

Miscellaneous:

• Art: finish fanarts for Apr 2008 [X], Aug 2008 [X] & Dec 2008 [X]; colour logo [X]
• Manga: scan oneshot page [X]; edit oneshot pages [X]
• Website: finish designing new website [X]; update ari-rin.com [X]; update deviantART site [X]; update Aesthetic Tribute subforum [X]
• Social activities: lunch with Irra, Krystle & Jess (Mon); dinner with family (Mon); dinner with June (Wed); lunch with Olivia (Fri); dinner with June (Fri); attend wedding (Sat); lunch with Pinah, Nurul, Nynna & Rizal (Sun)
• Domestic chores: organise room [X]; tidy car [X]; send clothes for drycleaning (Mon); pick up drycleaning (Sat)
• Transportation: send car for second servicing (Sat)
• Beauty spa: manicure & pedicure (Fri)
• Shopping: wireless bell
  
• Cinema: City of Ember (Sun)
  
• Anime list: TRC Tokyo Revelations (complete) [X]; Earl & Fairy (complete) [Verdict: 8.5/10]; Ceres - Celestial Legend (complete) [Verdict: 9/10]
  

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

Weekly Goals: Week 02 [2009]

I can't believe this, I caught the flu last Tuesday and since then, I wasn't able to do very much! What a way to start the new year! :( Well, must try better this week!

Fitness:

• Thursday: Gyming (FZ) or Yoga (VDA) [X]
  
• Friday: Gyming (FZ) [X]
• Sunday: Gyming (FZ) [X]

Miscellaneous:

• Art: finish fanarts for Apr 2008 [X], Aug 2008 [X] & Dec 2008 [X]; colour logo [X]
• Manga: scan oneshot page [X]; edit oneshot pages [X]
• Website: finish designing new website [X]; update ari-rin.com [X]; update deviantART site [X]; update Aesthetic Tribute subforum [X]
• Social activities: lunch with Irra, Sab, Jess & Krystle (Mon); dinner with June (Thurs); dinner with Yus, Meela, June, Pinah & Nurul (Sat); sushi with Jus & Tinie (Sun)
• Domestic chores: organise room; tidy car (Sun) [X]; send clothes for drycleaning (Sat) [X]
• Beauty spa: haircut (Fri); massage (Sat)
  
• TV series: Heroes (episodes 9-12) [X]
• Anime list: TRC Tokyo Revelations (complete) [X]; Zombie Loan (complete); World Destruction (complete)
  

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka

Selamat Tahun Baru 2009!

Firstly, I'd like to wish everyone a very:

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

I didn't do much on New Year's Eve! Was meant to meet up with my cousin Yusri who just got back from Australia that very afternoon, but that was cancelled! Gomen ne, Yus-kun! :( Unfortunately, I came down with the flu, what a way to start the new year!

Anyway, a bit of reflection, 2008 was a pretty good year for me. I achieved quite a bit:

• I started a new job.
• I made new friends and got to know some of my relatives better.
• I started doing yoga (and can now do a headstand - not perfectly yet, though!).
• I managed to lose some weight (but need to lose more and get fit, hehe!).
• I started drawing more and established a manga-drawing circle with Pip & Fel.
• I finished my German language course.
• I started saving for the future.
• and so on...

As for last year's resolutions, I only achieved 60% of them, so I must thrive to achieve better in 2009. So without further ado, here are my resolutions for this new year:

1. Improve my skills in Business Finance.
   
2. Continue with my Japanese language lessons.
3. Improve my Malay, German and French language skills.
4. Achieve punctuality.
5. Draw at least one manga.
6. Lose weight and MAINTAIN the weight loss!

Hmmm, my 2009 resolutions aren't exactly major life-changing ones, but that's okay. I'm not putting any of those in the list, since they are ones I constantly try to achieve and improve on - they do not need a time limit, hehe.

Oh, yeah, I changed the look of my blog yet again - this time to mark the New Year! ;) I've never used a manga/anime image for my background before, so this is a nice change! I decided on the Ren-sama and Kyouko pairing for the first one! XD Can you tell that I love "Skip Beat!"? Haha! Anyway, hope everyone's enjoying the first day of the new year! Peace! ;)

"Beginning is easy, continuing is hard."
dr.rin | artist.mangaka