January 2011 ~ ziombi

Monday, January 31, 2011

A month by month plan to get your home storage organized

9:22 AM

deli

Better Homes and Gardens released this storage organization guide recently and I thought it'd be a good thing to share. I should have posted it early, and from now on I'll post each month's schedule withing the first week of the month. To read the whole storage plan on BHG, click here.

Click on the image for a larger view

January is all about the home office. Here is what they suggest doing:

•Create a Mail Station. Set up mailboxes on a desk, wall, or bulletin board. Or give each member of your family his or her own labeled box, bin, or slot.

•Stay on Schedule. Hang a large monthly calendar in a spot everyone can see and use it. Choose a paper calendar or dry-erase version, and encourage everyone to write important events, deadlines, and reminders.

•Organize Office Supplies. Outfit a desk drawer near your main working area with a divided tray or multiple small bins. Limit the number of office supplies in each compartment. Label each compartment with an adhesive label.

•Get Rid of Junk. Test all writing utensils. Toss everything that doesn't work perfectly. Group similar items (pens, pencils, markers, etc) in canisters for easy access.

Of course, you can always go way more in detail, but I think their suggestions are a nice starting point.

I adore this choclate office, and I'm a huge fan of baskets.
via Southern Living

The modular desk systems and home office styling ideas from Pottery Barn are an organization junkies dream. ...one day...
via Pottery Barn

love me an inspiration board
via Traditional Home

A super glam office

A Herman-Miller studio.

'Shaolin' movie review

5:58 PM

deli

If you have noticed, I changed my blog skin. Although not much difference compared to the previous skin, I still feel that this one looks slightly more refreshing.

Anyway, last Saturday I just watched the new 'Shaolin' movie starring Andy Lau!

Shaolin (2011)

My personal ratings for this movie : 9 out of 10 stars

A very nice movie.

*Might contain some spoilers*
A big production movie with some big cast like Andy Lau, Nicholas Tse, Jackie Chan, Fan Bing Bing, and Wu Jing. I read that for this movie, Jackie Chan and his production crew built their own "Shaolin Temple" in Zhejiang Province that cost 10 million yuan (S$1.9 million) to avoid damaging the actual temple!! Yes, in one of the ending scenes, this "Shaolin Temple" was blown up by multiple cannons!

The story of this movie was set in the era after the fall of the Qing dynasty, when China was torn apart by the feuding warlords, battling each other to gain power and territory over the lands. At the same time, the country was also threatened by the Western powers who try to take benefits on top of the chaos and dissension in China.

Andy Lau plays a ruthless & power-thristed general who was betrayed by his trusted second-in-command (Nicholas Tse), who leads him and his family into a tragic fall. He is then forced to take refuge in the Shaolin temple (where he once looked down upon & even beaten up some of the monks there). Meanwhile, as he learns about forgiveness, peace and the harmony of life; his betrayer plans to wipe him and the Shaolin out. So, the former general leads the monks in a fiery stand to fight for the sake of humanity and righteousness.

It's been many months since I last watched such a good movie! The story line is exciting, the actings are great, and the fights are impressive! There are also moving moments, and memorable scenes that captured the spirit of humanity and Buddhism.

I will say this movie is Andy Lau's best performance yet!

Lastly, I'm sorry to say this, but the ending may not satisfy all audiences, it was not exactly a perfect ending.

Though I personally do not really like the ending, but overall it was still a great movie!
Must watch!!

Private Investigator

2:16 AM

deli

I ever worked as a P.I (Private Investigator) in a Private Investigation company! That was years ago! And today I would like to share one or two of my experience while I was working as a Private Investigator…

To join a private investigation company as a P.I; you will need to possess a bike and licence. Well, maybe a video camera too… It depends on different P.I companies; most of them expect you to own a video camera before joining them; some might buy a video camera for you first, then deduct the money from your salary; or a few may even borrow you their company’s video camera for a period for time! But whatever it is, to be a P.I, a video camera is a BIG MUST!!

The above are the basic criteria for getting a job as a P.I. I think it should be quite easy to join a P.I company because they are always hiring people; just flip open the classified newspaper and look under the ‘Other Position’ section. But be warned, most P.I companies’ sucks; they do not train or teach you anything much at all. Some could even just ‘leave you to die’ on your first day of work! But of course, there are still a few which is good.

The job of a P.I has irregular work timing, and also, it may be a little dangerous at times. For example; chasing a car in a rain, and frequently beating the red lights. Oh yah, you’ll also need to have lots of patience too.

There was once where I waited for this man in the middle of the night, from 12.30AM to 6.30AM, 6 hours straight!! Then there was another time where I waited for this lady for 5 hours under the sun! There totally wasn’t any shelter nearby at all, we were at Tuas!

My supervisor, his name is Jeremy; he is a nice big fat chubby cheeky man in his late twenties (should be in his 30s by now), and he was a ex-police officer.

When I first joined the P.I company, where Jeremy was also working in as a senior P.I, he immediately became my direct supervisor. He trained & taught me the skills of being a P.I. It was a learning-on-the-job thing; In fact, he even trained up my bike riding skills! Initially, I underestimated him - I thought that with his seriously over sized body and an ordinary bike, he could never outrun me. I’m riding a sports bike; it’s faster and lighter, and what’s more, I am light weighted – But I was wrong…

Jeremy has a very good riding skill; he weaves in and out of heavy traffic with much experience, like a snake slithering between rocks and broken branches! Considering his size and bike, he is probably one of the best among the people I know! I always couldn’t catch up with him, he rides really fast but wise, but he always expect me to catch up with him. Sometimes he even make bets with me to see if I am skilful enough to follow him throughout the journey and not lose sight of him. If I could do it, he will treat me to a meal. If not, I’ll have to treat him back. This was how he trained me.

Jeremy also seems to know the locations of all the best foods you can find in Singapore! He is always eating. Based upon his size, it obviously tells you that eating is a big pleasure to him!

Eventually, Jeremy left the company and starts his own Private Investigation Company instead! Then he asked me to join him which I did. And after working for awhile, I introduced my friend, Kevin, to join Jeremy’s company and work together.

Kevin

Kevin & Me

Most of the time it gets really boring when I work alone on a case, but on some cases I get to team up with Kevin, and it isn’t that boring anymore when you are working together with a friend…

Let me just share one of my most memorable experience that I had while working together as a P.I with Kevin...

Once, both of us were assigned to an unusual case of a mother who hired P.I to spy on his son – the mother actually wants to find out what her 15 yrs old son is doing outside, who does he mixes with, why is he often coming home late, etc…

So far, what we usually encountered are extramarital affair cases. In fact, 85% of all the cases are regarding extramarital affairs! Therefore, we did felt a little surprised when we received this unusual case from an interesting mother.

We spied on that kid for a few days. Other than under-age smoking, there is nothing serious like thefts or fights. He is just like any other young teenagers that frequently hang out with friends at arcades or shopping malls.

On the last night that we were required to spy on this kid, Kevin and I patiently waited for him under the void deck. It was around midnight when the kid’s mother called and told us that her son is about to leave the house soon. We immediately sprang into alert mode and prepare for our task.

5 minutes later, the kid appeared and we begin following him tactically.

We followed him across several blocks until he finally came to a block where his friends were waiting for him there. There were 3 of his guy friends, and seemingly, they are around the same age as the kid.

The kid joined them around the stone table and they begin chatting and smoking. One of the kids even bought drinks from a near-by convenient store.

A couple of hours passed, the kids are still sitting there. Kevin and I were getting really bored and impatient because there is nothing special; they were just slacking under a void deck in the middle of the night… Nonetheless, Kevin and I continued to spy.

Thankfully, I think it was between 2 to 3 AM when there was a sudden change in those kids activity. Oh yeah, they were leaving for someplace else.

Once again, we tactically followed those kids, until we arrived outside a stadium 5 minutes walk away from where we just left.

The exterior design of the stadium tells me that this is a very old stadium. In fact, there wasn’t even any ‘exterior design’, only fences and low walls surrounding the stadium. It was Queenstown Stadium.

Picture of Queenstown Stadium

Anyway, those kids went into the stadium through a widely opened side gate,and we followed in…

The red arrow shows where we entered from (Picture is from Google Earth)

If you have noticed the above picture, there are swimming pools just behind the track and field. It is actually a swimming complex, also part of the stadium. Anyway we’ll get to this later.

Continuing on after entering the stadium, it was very dark, all the lights have been switched off. In front of us is the track and field, and I can see silhouettes of people jogging around the track which surprises me! Don’t forget it is in the middle of the night!

The kids begin racing each other around the track while Kevin and I kept an eye on them.

10 minutes later, the kids stopped their race and started walking towards a corner of the stadium, but this time they were behaving suspiciously. The were heading towards another side gate (opposite side from where we came in).

The yellow dot shows the location of the side gate

The kids went into the side gate.

To avoid letting the kids find out that we are tracing them, Kevin and I waited for 5 minutes before entering the side gate.

After entering into the side gate, we arrived onto this area where what it seems like an abandoned construction site about the size of a tennis court.

This place was very dark; I had to use the LCD screen of my handphone as a little beacon. There were debris lying everywhere; some were almost half as huge as a refrigerator!

With a little help from both of our handphone screen, we steadily manoeuvre our way through the dark construction-site-like area.

While I was wondering where the hell those kids are, I can’t help but started to feel a little sense of excitement.

The area of the construction-site-like place

I believe that the place that we were in is an area restricted to the public. Maybe it was really a construction site that was put on hold for a few weeks? Or maybe what I guessed was right; it is an abandoned construction site?

Kevin & I explored around the place trying to find those kids, but they are nowhere in sight! And to make things more complicated, we were shocked to discovered that this area is a dead-end surrounded by low walls!

Confused, we stood still from where we were. Where the hell have those kids gone to? Did they just disappear?

Suddenly, we heard huge splashes of water followed by laughters from a distance. We immediately followed the sounds, towards the direction where it was coming from.

Very soon, we discovered that the water splashing and laughters is coming from behind the low wall; those kids have successfully sneaked into the swimming complex by quietly walking through the side gate, creeping across the construction site, and finally, climbing over the low wall!

This picture shows the kids’ trail

The wall is about 2 metres tall.

While Kevin and I stood closely to the wall wondering what to do next, the kids on the other side of the wall continued their fun with all the water splashing and vulgarities...

Stood in between us and the kids is a wall

By the way, don’t forget that this was in the middle of the night. The pictures I showed you were in bright day-light.

Day - Queenstown Stadium & Swimming Complex

Night - This picture is an idea to roughly show you how dark it was

After observing them (by listening) for 10 minutes, I decided to secretly take a video of them. But then I realised something. How am I going to take a video of them when even my view is blocked by the wall??

Kevin quickly got an idea. He said that I will stand on his shoulders, and in this way, I would be high enough to look over the wall. Upon finishing his sentence, he got into a ready position right away!

I stepped onto Kevin’s shoulder, he lifted me up high enough to look over the wall, and I started observing them first…

A lousy artist impression of how it would probably look like. *LOL*

After observing them for 5 minutes, one of the kids suddenlly turned his head towards my direction and saw me!

The kid had a shocking look on his face.

I instantly bend down to hide myself, and whispered to Kevin that I’ve just been spotted by one of the kids! What should we do now?

All of a sudden, there was silence. No more splashing of water or laughs from the kids.

Kevin and I was still panicking over being spotted by one of the kids that we didn't know what to do. We just froze there.

A few minutes passed, and there is still no sound coming from the kids. By this time (already overcome our panics) we find it strange and decided to take another peek over the wall again...

WTH?! The kids are gone!

We quickly climbed over the wall and searched around the swimming complex for the kids. I even searched the shower rooms which is pitch black! But despite all, we still couldn’t find them. They must have left the stadium.

We looked outside the stadium, but still, we could not find them. Must be after those kids discovered that they were being traced, they immediately went home!

The following day, after Kevin and I arrived to our office, our superior (Jeremy) begin asking us about last night‘s case.

We told him everything.

He replied that next time we shouldn’t follow whoever we are following into restricted areas, just in case we might get caught by the authorities.

Following on, he told us something that we found it very amusing.

He said that the kid’s mother called him this morning - The mother told Jeremy she was surprised that her son, after returning home late last night, admitted and told her where he just went. But her son added that he is telling her this is because the swimming complex that he sneaked in is haunted!

The kid told his mother, that last night he saw A HEAD OF A FEMALE GHOST when he was swimming!

The frightened kid decided to tell his mother where he sneaked out to last night.

LOL! Omg! This is so funny! Now it makes sense as to why those kids suddenly left the swimming complex so quickly after they saw me peeking at them; instead of me, they thought they saw a head of a female ghost and it scared the shit out of them!!

Actually, it isn't too surprising that they mistook me for a female ghost because my hair was quite long then, and also, my skin was fair.

Secondly, there is a Chinese proverb that goes like this:
“平生不做罪心事, 半夜敲门也不惊."

In english it means:
“If one has never done anything guilty/sinful in one's life, you have nothing to be afraid of even if there is someone (presumably a ghost) comes knocking on your door in the middle of the night.”

The kids must be feeling guilty because they have broken the law by wandering into the restricted area and into the swimming complex. Therefore, this explains the easy fright!

Frankly speaking, come to think of it again, which 15 years old teenage would ever guessed that a P.I was following them??

If I were to be the one sneaking into a dark swimming pool in the middle of the night and saw a head popping out from a 2 METERS HIGH WALL, it probably would have scared the shit out of me too!

Alright, I have come to the end of my boring story.
By the way, regarding the moment where the kids saw me peeking at them,it might have looked something like this…

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

LOL! Another lousy artist impression of how it might have looked like

- Fin –

sweet, sweet sleep - in a beautiful bedroom

11:57 AM

deli

Here in Maryland we had a blizzard that left over a foot of snow in a matter of hours. Yuck. The gloom outside makes it so hard to get up in the morning. I just want to sleep and not wake until i can look out the window and the weather be sunny and in the 70s all week. Agree?

so simple and pretty

I'm loving the deep hues being used only in the bedding - it makes the room super versatile.

Great home office - and great bedroom - but I'd be too tempted to take naps with my bed so close to my desk.

via Casa Diez

Psychological Warfare

1:44 PM

deli

You know, I hate insomnia!

And I someone who has seriously bad insomnia!

My insomnia developed slowly during my National Service (2003 - 2005), and coming to the last 6 months of my National Service, it got worse.

A few months after my National Service, I did recovered a little; still have insomnia but not that bad. But in the recent years, the bad insomnia's started again

The number one thing I hate about insomnia is that it makes me very difficult to doze off into sleep! And also makes me very difficult to carrying on sleeping if my sleep has been interrupted for more than 15 mins!

I am someone who could endure a long period of time without sleeping. For example, 24 hours without sleep, 32 hours without sleep, or even 40 hours without sleep! But once I sleep, I need a LONG rest.

I'm unlike most people, they could take short sleeps of 6 to 8 hours daily, but they could not endure staying up for long periods; they will at least need to rest a couple of hours in-between. For me, I could stay up for a long period before heading off to sleep. What I'm trying to say here is that everything has it advantages & disadvantages.

Some of my family members doesn't think that I really have insomnia. But it is true that I have!

Despite I'm working or not, I will have insomnia. Of course my insomnia does get better if I'm working - waking up in the morning for work, returning home feeling tired, and sleep when it is time - But still, I will have insomnia.

When I am working I will still get insomnia at least once a month, and I usually wouldn't be able to fall asleep that night! I would have to stay out so late until I know I could fall alseep, but by then, it is already time for me to prepare for work!

Yeah! Because of insomnia, at least once a month, I will have to go to work without sleep at all! Who does??

If this is not insomnia, then what is this?
I think I need to see a psychiatrist about this soon!

Lovely work spaces whatever your work may be

10:39 AM

deli

I do light sewing but plan to really learn more over the next two years. A room devoted to sewing would be divine.
via Fjeldborg

via Decor8 Tumblr

so elegant! via Elle Decor

One of my fav. home offices of all time. This space proves that even a garage can be pretty. The track lighting just makes the beams look industrial chic!
via Ish and Chi

I really like these filing cabinets from Crate and Barrel

via Canadian House and Home

An unused closet can make a small but functional home office.
via BHG

Good organizing accessories also make your space pretty and functional. This nifty laptop organizer, and this adorable teacup supply organizer are from Emmo Home.

Beautiful entryways you haven't seen before

7:31 AM

deli

well...I hope these are new to you...

A close up of the hall above

Great magazine display!

via Casa Diez

A prelude to Spring

11:20 AM

deli

I feel like every year I'm ready for spring a little bit sooner. This year is no exception. I can't remember the last time the sky was blue. Hopefully these pictures can help us remember what spring looks like.