omfg

yesterday was rachelle's bday party, as usual celebrated with AWESOME KARAOKE!!!

so much to jot down, but let's start with the AWESOME SONGS

like, that was one of the most fun times karaoking i've had in houston, probably cuz the environment was unique (will explain laterz in note) but like there were some songs that everyone was up and screaming, or some songs that i never had the chance to karaoke before but it was super fun~~

Awesome songs that everyone was singing:
- My Happy Ending (Avril Lagvine)
- Tubthumping (Chumbawamba)
- Larger than life (Backstreet Boys)
I'm pretty sure there were more, but i can't remember. -_-

Awesome songs that i loved singing:
- Numb - encore (Linkin Park) never heard the jay-z rap part before, but it was fun rapping >:D rapping is so fun...i also made up rap for 'Getting Jiggy with it' and that was..unusual
- Just Wanna Be With You (Enrique Inglesias...my most passionate song ever. it's awesome)

anyhoo

we went to HappyZone KTV, the new karaoke place that opened up next to the new Fufu's restaurant...
i discussed karaoke places with rachelle afterwords, where are my thoughts of ranking karaoke:

4.) Usual home karaoke (like SongStation)
Setting: well, it's at home o_O

Price: you don't have to pay, haha

Song selection: TERRIBLE. usually just super old songs (or like children songs, wtf) all the songs, even the asian ones, must be dated like the 90s or less. my parents love the chinese songs, but really i don't recognize any of the japanese/korean, and like the most updated american songs are like early britney spears.

Karaoke system: The background images are like touristy areas and really boring. and the scoring is usually based on how long you can sing, or like if you sing in time with the karaoke (like, when the words highlight). however, it usually has bad grammar or the timing is off, and they just use boring MIDI tracks.


3.) YesKTV - above star snow ice in the new plaza, we used to go here for our houston karaoke needs
Setting: The rooms are long and wide, so it's hard to judge if it's a big room or not. not much leg room to dance in front of the TV tho, haha, but a nice long couch to sit on? and their tables glow.

Price: it's probably one of the more expensive.

Song selection: it's alright. the problem i've had with it is the font in their pages are really small, and they have 2 separate books...one filed by artist name, one filed by song name...as nice as that seems, it's actually not very effective at all, not sure why. probably because i think there's still some newer song 'addons' that then make it kind of out of order.

Karaoke system: the biggest problem i have with YesKTV. they have a separate system for each language -_- the chinese karaoke system my sister loves, it's really nice and you can flip thru the artist on a touch screen and just touch the song to select it, and it builds a list too. This type of system is like one of the advanced systems they are now selling, so it's like oooh nice technology. Also they have all the music videos stored in there too to play when you select a certain song.
HOWEVER the english one is just normal, but also tucked away in a wood cabinet that has a hole smaller than my hand. you have to AIM the number remote to that hole and that is actually, very, very difficult.
And since all their systems are separate, you have to hit a switch to flip between all of them (btw, when i was there, the guy didn't know how to work the japanese system, so i didn't even bother) so, say my sister's singing some chinese songs, now would be the perfect time to punch in some new numbers on the english system, rite? but like heck i'm going to do it blindly towards a small little hole. Even with the screen switched onto the english system it's like 50/50 if you can get the right numbers in while watching -_- but it's not good for ppl like me who sing in multiple languages...never even tried their japanese, and i don't know if they even have korean...


2.) Happy Zone KTV
Setting: the room is nice/normal sized, and the benches are nice too (like yesktv). no tamborines tho, we probably should have asked for some.

Prices: are about the same as YesKTV but they also have a happy hour time, which is AWESOME (2-6pm) and cheaper. would be nice to go there during the daytime/weekday, super cheap. however, they did pile one some random charges that were unclear really what it were...melinda and others went karaoke on saturday and they charged them like a lot of money for (bottled) water...they just wanted free water >>;

Karaoke System: I'm writing about this first cuz it ties in w/ the song selection. Anyhow, it's like the new awesome touch screen version mentioned in the chinese part of YesKTV, but EVEN COOLER since they have a bunch of american artists!! and i saw japanese and korean too (all these were under 'foreign' artists, versus chinese)  so we could build a list of anything we liked. It was really cool...PLUS those systems use the original music video (most of the time. or have a specific video set to it.) The off-vocal tracks were pretty nice too. Some old songs have weird 90s/80s settings, but like 50% of the songs were like that, so that means the other 50% were awesome :D)

Song Selection: unfortunately, it lacks a lot. since it's a new chinese system, they haven't put in many songs at all. the most recent was rihanna songs, or that jordin sparks - no air song. Also a lot of the artists listed didn't have our favorite songs, like kelly clarkson didn't have her hazel eyes song, or since u been gone...only breakaway. linkin park didn't even have In The End, which i think the home systems even have it..so *sigh* Plus it's not really all correctly labelled, so using the search was usually really hard...and flipping thru like 50 pages, 8 artists a page, takes a REALLY long time then if you're looking for a specific song/artist. it looks like it has a lot of growing/catching up to do in the 'foreign' department...they only had wonder girls list 'nobody' and super junior didn't have sorry sorry, and dbsk didn't have mirotic/higher (but i saw hug and purple line and rising sun and doushite kimi whatever.) they had enough songs to keep us entertained all night but i think we exhausted everything...and no new popular artists, like taylor swift or lady gaga. :T


1.) New Seoul Karaoke Studio
Setting: it actually looks REALLY ghetto, but that's what i liked about it, actually. not like Austin Karaoke. The benches and rooms are kinda low par and everything is sticky of alcohol, but it still can be dark enough anyhoo for you to not care (or not...the books sometimes are pretty gross). plus they gave us free good tasting popcorn once :D side note: once we went and one of the guys went to the bathroom and saw two guys doing you-know-what...he like backed out real quick and was whoaaa..o_O so yes, a little ghetto.

Prices: The cheapest by a good amount, PLUS they often undercharge, or at least charge max what the base price is. Granted, i haven't gone while bringing in my own drinks (where i could get charged for that) but there was still that one time they pretty much charged us for 4 hours like $70 (we were there for actually a little more than 3.5 hrs, so they were like 3 hours...SHOULD be $75, but they marked it even lower...so it was like $10 a person. like whoa so nice! but that only happened once, but i'm sold :D)

Song Selection: Has a lot of current songs from japan, korea, and america...they're really only behind by like a couple of months, we could already sing mirotic pretty early after it was released plus mai learned how to use the search function so lots of fun there. There's so many foreign songs that i know, as well as a good amount of american songs. like, really nice amount. they kept it pretty well updated and that was really nice, my favorite part :D and not too difficult to sort thru as well! nice font in books, and my favorite languages were all in one book, so not bad at all. also the tracks were better sounding than like the home karaoke/yesktv versions.

Karaoke System: sometimes we would get lucky and instead of boring touristy video, we got cute korean videos from like dramas or something random. or like those iDance videos to dance along with. but already that is better than touristy videos by ALOT. mmhm

okay
phew
that literally took me 2 days to type, i started writing on saturday then got busy and had to finish today.

happy birthday rachelle!

totally haven't written anything during this new year...

if anything, this entry looks back on the past, and i guess compares it to the future.

---

i randomly was cleaning my room and found my final project for RTF 366k (well, more like someone else's final project, group project, etc.)

BOY was it crappy.

like

out of 5 films, 2nd to worst, imo.
and it's only speculation because the "worst one" i didn't even rewatch because it was one of those...'different' films. those that everyone watches and is like WTF was that. but that one aside, like DAYUM. seriously. it was pretty bad, and not something i would be proud of.

the plot kinda sucked (not quite my type of movie), the acting sucked, the editing sucked (especially the sound editing), and goshdarnit the cinematography REALLY SUCKED. i kept hoping that they just chose the wrong shots, but really, no. It sucked. I should know. I was the cinematographer. why didnt i pan or tilt?!? like wtf. all static shots that totally cut off ppl's heads in weird places, and ignored the rule of thirds...ffffs.

the other ones, nothing spectacular as well, but i dunno, felt miles ahead of what i could do.

i do believe that this class taught me something that changed the trajectory of where i was going. after this class, i was like "that's it. not going to be a director or a cinematographer. sticking with editing, mmhm."
mostly because this class was stressful as hell. and guess what. making films is stressful.

I watch Angela's stuff often now (mostly cuz, 1, it's beautiful and 2, she has amazing song choice that darn right gets stuff stuck in my head) and man! seriously, very few ppl have the talent to make beautiful stuff, and she's got all of them to work her for, haha. she's probably the busiest person I know (and I know busy people) so I always wish her best of luck. I'm not really good enough to work for her, mostly....cuz I'm a lazy bum. I really should have tried harder. *sigh* past regrets.

now in regards of what i do now...

well, i dunno! what happened. The Impression video, it's like, not crappy. Not sure how I learned anything, since the last thing that i made worth anything was "Monochrome" (and I'm actually being serious here!) I think...my mind only works well with non-linear plots. I.e., things like documentaries (like that crossplay one, I actually like that), or that Impression video...just not stuff that's supposed to be a story. or wasn't shot to be a story.

I do wish I could get better at some skills.
Like cinematography.
and Audio mixing. omg, good audio editing/mixing...it's like heaven. *_* you have no idea how it could help a crappy film.

so here's to 2010, and hopes that I get more practice and hone those skills. yup. will be difficult with my job...we'll see.

meant to post this on Monday...morning...

but again, this christmas has been SOO busy that like, blargh. And I can't fit anything into my schedule, it's super depressing plus other things. will have to post about it later.

----

Been having a nutso past coupla weeks...so my entry again is going to be scattered, scattered thoughts. Just to document what's been going thru my head.

starting from last sunday (with the bosses' parents' anniversary party), I've just been super swamped. i've never knew that being over-scheduled on PARTIES/RECREATION was such a downer, sometimes.

past week - been working on the video production for the company like non-stop. Mitch (3rd boss) is like, when are you going to work for me again?? haha. (uh, 3rd boss's domain is the computer stuff. right now i take orders from 1st and 2nd for the video/wedding dress looks)
been EXHAUSTED and wanted to rest after work, so i never really got a good chance to work on maid cafe outfit.

Friday after work: worked on maid cafe outfit (due Sunday), mostly cut out pieces and get distracted with everyone for learning dances and Girl-chan in Paradise.

"WHATTTT IS THIS PLACE."

Saturday: Dentist in the morning. That...was painful, I need to floss more. Shoe shopping for maid cafe right afterwards, but TOOK FOREVER. gawd. I was looking for a deal at Shoe carnival, buy 1 get the other 1/2 off for like 2 hours because the shoes were kinda pricey and I wanted a deal. and never found anything else.

Went back down the outlet strip one more time, go back into the store again and right then they announce "oh, if you only want one, we'll take $5 off." The other time I was in there for 2 hours, they announced like 5 different sales, and i finally got lucky...after like 3 hours -_- or "lucky"...not really lucky.

Speed home to work on outfit, only get so much done at semi-sewing party, and had to get ready to go to company christmas party at "5"
(really, nothing happened until 6:15, so thank goodness Jake and I were fashionably late. Oh, and Joy did my hair and I got a new make-up set from work as a christmas party !YAY! Jake was invited in hopes that the dance contest would allow swing dancing, but no.
It was the stanky leg.

ah well, the warehouse guys were SUPER drunk and were all up on that dance floor, was hilarious and they deserved the win.

I also tried the singing contest, but failed miserably because I was nervous. BAHHHHH
"Wannabe" is fun for in a room setting, but don't try it in a karaoke bar setting. probablllly doesn't work. Shoulda picked something else.
But also got ot sing Barbie Girl with some guy named Johnny. Neither were 'finalists'. *crushing defeat* lol jk.

and I didn't win any raffles at all. *sigh* bye-bye chi hair straightener...

but it was still fun because I learned how to play craps! and one swing song! ahhhh i miss swing.
And Larry (the photographer) tried to teach me the hustle, I kinda was still learning how to read the lead, but was getting there.
Afterwards I also got to see Vincent and Jake's new house, it's pretty cool. IMHO, too deep in the neighborhood, but ah well. no biggie.

I went home, took small nap from like 12-2:30, then woke up to sew until like 6:30...overslept for church today...

Sunday - go to church kinda late, we just talked about how the ECC's doing for time and leadership, and end of year, etc.
After the luncheon, I rush to joann's to get some cloth and then just sew like mad to finish the maid cafe outfit. Go to Joy's and finish it up thre, get glam-ed up and got to PZ really late...about an hour late.

but it was okay. me and natalie's outfits turned out pretty well, imho. I thought it would end up crappy only cuz we had to remake the apron and that was super time consuming -_- but managed to get in the detail work in time too~~ so <3s Many thanks to joy for hair/makeup/help

Had to rush home for ECC secret santa...so that was a bit awkard, still wearing my maid cafe uni and makeup, but whateverrrsss it was fun and I got an itunes gift card! time to buy music for reals this time. and apps.

now it's night and I have buttloads to clean up.
Monday night - birthday dinner with family
Tuesday night - secret santa with JAC+ kids
Wednesday night - pack for chicago and leave Thursday + birthday dinner with family, and also see if can visit Linda...and Angel...omg. wtf.
PS: must finish video before thursday @_@

plus, my cat is being SUPER BAD because we're trying to get her on Ms. Dora's feeding schedule, so she's like chewing on everything and getting in my face and crying even tho she's getting the same amount of food still. RAWR!

*stress stress stress stress stress*

work's been pretty busy, and i'm more tired these days =_= what's pretty cool is they want to make a video, and i get to be head honcho~~ teehee! i really hope i don't screw it up somehow, cuz this will be the first production that i would do that paid me (well, they always pay me) and also they even bothered to hire real models, etc....

so i realllllly hope it turns out well. Kinda nervous.

But at home, i procrastinated WAY too much on that essay, and chances are they won't get to it before the Austin interview. *sigh* stupid. oh well, at least i finished it and can move onto the next part of life (i swear i was breaking out because of this...and it really only took me like 6-7 hours.)

mm

hopefully will also get in shape for Anime Matsuri :3

so sleepy on fridays...


because of all the poke craze lately (darn you heart gold/soul silver) I've been thinking a lot about cosplay...and a certain trainer...






 















no...not that one..




























reminds me too much of the brawl version. not a fan.































getting closer...
















  

DANG. SUPER COOL.

Like seriously, what's awesome about generation II/the gold silver games was that the characters grew up. and if you played red/blue/yellow, and then gold/silver, it was AWESOME cuz, well, you were once that little trainer kid who started out from pallet town and now you're some epic trainer on Mt. Silver with the strongest NPC team ever.
It's like, from a kid to a man~~ haha, kinda lame. But I had pokemon yellow so actually the pokemon team matched up pretty well.

Also, I have many pictures (well, mebe like 3) of Red looking awesome and grown up. with the usual "..." and cap covering his face, I dunno, it's pretty hot, if i do say so myself. Much cooler than the usual Ash Ketchum, who often can't keep his mouth shut.

But ya.
In actualty, I don't think i would cosplay him, cuz, well, i think the effect i'm looking for has to be male and kinda on the tall side. and hot.

Plus, I haven't even caught any of the legendary pokemon yet in Pokemon Emerald....*fails as trainer*
I just like training too many pokemon.