Pride & Prejudice Zombie

I saw and I read with morbid curiosity. As one of the hopeless romantic that idolizes Mr. Darcy, I felt torn in 2 directions: indignant or fascinated. My first reaction was, "How dare they butchered a classic!!" but then I am not type of purist who is not willing to be more open-minded. I am looking forward to the day when I can read the book and judge it by myself. This modern interpretation of Jane Austen's work is available for pre-order in Amazon.

Confession of an online addict

I work in an advertising industry... surprise...surprise... In the past, I have always thought that I will be working in media or fashion industry, but somehow I stumbled upon advertising and started to like it. However I suspected that I am turning into a prissy online addict because of my job. I guess that would still be a prissy online addict if I work in media or fashion industry, but the very idea of not having my trusty laptop and internet connection horrifies me. I realise that it is almost turning into a problem (my smart phone is not helping my addiction), may be I am in a denial phase, but I believe that I am not that bad yet.

Now what is the connection between my job and my addiction? Well, it is quite direct. My position as a creative junior planner (ex-trendwatcher) demands me to be informed all of the time, which means being connected at least 17 hours per day (no compromise with beauty sleep). Frankly I love to be connected; however a habit is turning into a problem when one experienced a cold turkey! Typical withdrawal syndromes are as followed: anxiety of missing the latest news (however small), fretful from not checking email (or facebook or other similar social media), and uneasiness from not having information at the tip of fingers (google or other similar site).

Good news is that I am not a special case, online addiction is a very modern phenomenon, some have it worse, and some are better coping with it. My inner hippy natural girl assured me that I would be able to survive without all of these technologies and connectivity. I would even have better quality of life (less stress and pressure do wonder to skin!), but just like every other addict, I will say that there is always another day.

Julia, the hopeless addict, can be found in blogspot, facebook, friendster, and flickr. She is still weighting the benefit of twitter.

Lanvin & Geek

As a geek that worship fashion, I am totally in love with Lanvin's latest ads. It features lego, pacman, and space invader! What more can I ask, they combine 2 of my biggest passions. Please enjoy the colourful eye candy which was photographed by Hartland Villa.

Trying out Bikram Yoga

I have been thinking about trying Bikram Yoga for ages. After being recommended by Mylda last year, the idea has been festering behind my brain for awhile. However, I have been reluctant to go due to financial reason, after all as an intern, I wasn't earning that much and any meagre money that I have left would end up in my shopping budget.

Then comes the perfect timing, I have been getting itchy to work up some sweat and there is the Christmas fat that has been a bit difficult to get rid off. So after dragging Da Fonz to wake up early this Sunday, I managed to try a session of Bikram yoga. And what an intense 90 minutes of work out it was!

26 poses later, I was drenched through and through. The 40C steam room helped a lot in the process and in the end, my muscles were stretched and jelly-like. In addition to that, I feel so invigorated through the breathing exercise. I am sooo going back. If you are interested to try a session of Bikram yoga then I will suggest you to check your local community or if you live in The Hague, you can visit Bikram Yoga Den Haag.

Julia recommends Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire Trailer from Amardeep Kaleka on Vimeo.

This year Oscar black horse movie, Slumdog Millionaire, is one of the sweetest film I have watched for awhile. Directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting), Slumdog Millionaire tells the life story of Jamal, a street kid in Mumbay, who is in the verge of winning the biggest prize of Indian 'Who wants to be a millionaire'. The prize has deluded the smartest people in the country, but how come an uneducated 'chai' boy can progress through? Why someone that doesn't care about money, insisted to be part of the show? The puzzles are unfolded through the movie. This is one of the feel-good movie that I love: Jamal's bitter-sweet fate, Mumbay's rapid urbanisation that reminds me to Jakarta, and the optimist attitude no matter what happened. Slumdog Millionaire is definitely in one of the 'dysfunctionally happy' genre like Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind, Juno, and Little Miss Sunshine. Also kudos to the amazing performance by the child actors :-)

Distinctive events

Let see, what the world has been about while I was tolling away in the office...

First is the inauguration of Mr. Barack Hussein Obama, probably one of the candidate with the most technology savvy, human engaging campaign I have seen so far. The message of HOPE and CHANGE came across clearly and the grass root movement was just admirable. This poor guy comes to the office in one of the worst situation ever, counting in bad international reputation, wars, questionable human right practice, and a globally crippling financial crisis. While he managed to fight for his crackberry, everyone is holding their breaths waiting for Obama to perform his magic. I say just wait and see. If this guy really can speak slang Jakarta, then he can't be that bad ;-)

Second would be how the super human, 8 Olympic medals winner, Michael Phelps got caught in bad publicity due to a photo of him bonging to la-la land, was published. Suspended for 3 months and lost deal with Kellogs, he is in the publicity ugly side. I gave out a relief sigh. Finally he is acting like a 23 years old dude that he is and it also explains his inhuman calories intake everyday. Hey this guy struggled and practiced everyday to get where he is. Cut him some slack yeah? He isn't harming anyone.

Third, remember the opening position advertised as one of the best job in the world ever? You know, a job where you can spend your day lounging about in a sandy beach and blog about it? Part of the Australia tourism campaign, the news of this job has been popularly circulating around the WWW community. Obviously this will attract some eccentric crowd to apply for it. Anyway, I have to applause this prankster that edited bits of Bin Laden's video and turned it into a video application! Enjoy!

OMG it is already 2009

I am soooo lame. I didn't realize the change of year until a few days ago when it struck me that it is already February 2009! When did every thing passed by? Time is flying real fast that I am not in tune with its pace yet. I feel like old granny already... or I would insist that I am an old soul in a young body hehe

There were flurries of activities along the period of me returning from my holiday to now, so it is no wonder I lost count.... the crazy Honda pitch was definitely one (jet-lagged one week of intense overtime, holiday? what holiday?), then Christmas came knocking on the door (lovely proper English Christmas celebration with FFonz family in Luxembourg), New Year (freezing party in Amsterdam and the memorable moment of Viv leaving a token in NS 1st class carriage), and then now. Did I mention that now I am a junior planner? A busy fulfilling year indeed!