The 3-page story, written by Esther, shares the story behind seven women whom SHAPE admires. I was labelled as the Entrepreneur, a young boss and one who embraces work-live balance. Well, all three relatively true in some ways. But I’ve to admit, it’s not 100% all the time, especially the work-life balance portion. In such hectic and fast paced reality, and still much in the infancy stage of the business, my team and I take every project we have very seriously and put in all we can to ensure it’s success. We are more than grateful if we can have a peaceful weekend to rest!

So, if you have not read the article about these seven women, go get yourself a copy. Might post up snapshot of my portion later in August.

Aside: @nadnut spotted me and tweeted my pic. And @jerricklim and @nanyate tweeted that I’m hot! I blushed. But personally, I prefer the camwhored photos with my 7D that day.

But when the journalist tell me that she’d failed to search the web for information or find blog posts about the topic in discussion, it irritates me. If I can use a single keyword, e.g. the name of an even to find an entire page of blogs posts discussing about it in Google, I don’t see why you can’t. Now that I think about it, I regretted sending links and information over to them. It’s their job to search and investigate, not mine.

Blogging has helped me record my life, happenings and memories in a way that’s openly searched, read and used by anyone that chances upon my blogs. Some of these posts come in very useful for future referencing or if there’s a need to provide a set of comment with regards to that particular event that happened months ago, blog posts surely serve a better memory refresher than trying to squeeze your braincell dry trying to remember what happened or who were there etc. Especially if you keep your posts organised and accompany it with related photos, videos or links, referencing back your past is made easy and possible through blogging.

Every journalists, in the digital space or not, need to get into the talks and walks first, before trying to make sense of something totally new to them and try to draft an article on it based on interviews and hear-say from others. Why not take the plunge and dive into it yourself and experience it? That’s one thing bloggers love. Experiencing things first hand. We would rather spend time attending an event and trying out the product in real life, then just reading off a press release. We take action first and blog later.

Are you picking up social media tools and learning to be human in the digital space already? I hope you do!

Companies reluctant to woo customers with tweet nothings

Larger version

Larger version

Nothing to comment on this right now since it was from two months ago. Progression and growth digitally is too fast too furious. Something two months ago may not be news anymore. Just want to post it up as a record for my own reference. And if you’d missed this, for your reading too.

I may not have seen the worst, but I have seen enough…

1. The parent who couldn’t afford to buy a proper meal for their children.
2. The parent who can’t accept the reality that their child is autistic.
3. The parent who can’t understand why their perfect child isn’t able to learn like other children.
4. The single mother who is trying to get ends meet, had to make her 10-year-old daughter to work with her at the coffee shop serving beer to the uncles and men.
5. The child who has no one to turn to at home because her parents are always no way in sight.

All these and much much more. There are simply too many problems, family and children in need. Most of the times, the children in these cases are innocent and were brought to the situation by the lack of love, concern, care and support from their parents and family. But there is still hope. You can help them!

Singapore Children’s Society – http://www.childrensociety.org.sg

M.I.L.K – Mainly I Love Kids – http://www.milk.org.sg

The above are two local initiatives who are here to help these children. But it takes more than just their love, support, time and programme to spread out to so many children out there. Yes, there are fund raising events, flag day, donation drives and charity runs organised to help raise funds and awareness. But now, there is one more way for you to help…

Samsung has set aside USD700,000 for total of 21 beneficiaries from 5 countries. All of them already will receive a base sum set by Samsung. But now, you can help Samsung decide how they can distribute the remaining sum. Help them by pledging your hope at Samsung Hopes Take Off.

I have made my pledge. Have you?

If you have a blog too, you can help spread the words out…

Wear a badge of support (Simply copy and paste this code into your blog)

<center><a href="http://www.samsunghope.org/"><br /> <img src="http://www.samsunghope.org/img/badges/200x80-HopeTakesOff-button.gif" width="200" height="80" alt="Hope Takes Off !" /> </a></center>

From 20 Nov to 7 Dec, there are a whole line-up of interesting activities for everyone! And you also get to meet up-close with Dim Sum Dollies, Mark Lee, Vincent Ng and many more!

With more than 70 activities to choose from, no one is going to be left out from Exploring Singapore lah! Will you be going to any of them too? Find out more at Explore Singapore website now!

For me, I will may be attending the following events and activities at Explore Singapore! Wanna join me? It’ll be fun!!

Dim Sum Dollies Day Out! on 29 Nov, Sat at 1pm or 3pm at National Museum of Singapore.

Japan Media Arts Festival in Singapore 2008: Growing Together at Singapore Art Museum from 21 Nov to 14 Dec.
I can’t wait to immerse myself into Japanese pop culture with award-winning new media art, animation, manga and entertainment!

A Bearie Bear Workshop on 26 Nov, Wed at 5.30pm to 6.30pm at Mint Museum of Toys.

Fun with Stamps on 28 Nov, Fri at 10am to 12pm at Singapore Philatelic Museum.

WRAP! FESTIVAL on 7 Dec, Sun at 1pm to 6pm at Asian Civilisations Museum.

Gosh! Looks like I’ll be very busy the next few weeks! Oh! And you know what? If you’re member of Yebber.com, you’ll also get bonus Y$ for posting reviews of Explore Singapore! and the 8 NHB Museums during this special period! AND! AND! AND!! There’s also a Subaru Forrester up for grab with every $5 spent at Explore Singapore! Wah!!! What are you waiting for? Quick register yourself, your family and friends for the exciting line-ups now!!

I’m helping a worthy cause to find out how much you would pay for these contemporary art pieces. It’s for a fund raising project. Drawn by those who need the funds. Pieces are drawn on wooden pieces with poster colors.

How much would you pay for these paintings?

Hello! And welcome to my first issue of Claud talks Gadgets! The purpose of the start of this series is to help me consolidate my thoughts and posts on the gadgets (latest or not) which I come across from day to day. It can be something I spotted while window shopping, introduced by a friend or gadgets which I find interesting and power-packed to share with you.

Please note that all reviews and thoughts on the gadgets showcased are 100% personal and based on my own understanding and experiences only.

Alright… so for the first issue, I’ll be touching on a few new cameras! Of course I’ve to kick start my first issue with my all-time favorite gadgets lah! I cannot live without them! If you’re considering getting a new camera, I hope this issue will help give you some help for your decision making. If you’ve any other questions on cameras or photography in general, feel free to drop me a line here. I will try my best to answer them. :)

What do you want to read about?
1. Sony T500 with HD video recording
2. Canon latest compact Powershot
3. Review: Samsung NV24HD camera
4. Claud’s latest Gadget Discoveries
5. Win Limited Edition T-shirt!

Sony T500 with HD video recording

This is Sony’s first release of a HD video recording in its Cyber-shot series. The DSC-T500 camera can capture HD videos at 1280 x 720 resolution in 30fps. And one of the coolest thing I like about this camera, is the ability to capture still images while recording a movie! This is done just by a click of a button on the bottom left corner of the screen.

Just like the other range of Cyber-shot cameras, the DSC-T500 features a large 3.5-inch Clear Photo LCD Plus with touch screen display with a user-friendly menu. With 10.1-megapixel, 5x optical zoom and an improved High Sensitivity mode of ISO 3200, this latest Sony camera might be what you need to capture the memorable moments in still images or HD movies.

This new Cyber-shot DSC-T500 will be available in Singapore from late September.

Price unknown.

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Canon latest compact Powershot cameras

Canon announced the launch of the new A-series PowerShot cameras. These new range of Powershot cameras delivers outstanding imaging in pocket-sized form, with its size over 20% smaller than those of their predecessors!

Canon A1000IS

A 10-megapixel camera with 4x Optical Zoom lens, 2.5″ LCD screen and DIGIC III Image Processor. One of the feature I thought is useful for those who don’t want to fuss about the settings when capturing photos is the Easy Mode. This mode allows anyone to take great photos with ease. The shooting settings are automatically selected by the camera.

For example, image blurring is eliminated as the camera automatically switches to macro mode when the camera is too close to the subject in frame. Exposure is also auto corrected so you will not get shots that are over or under exposed.

Being a Canon IXUS user myself, I’m used to shooting with the Manual mode but its lacking in the new A-series. For those who wants to have more control and wants a compact camera, check out the Canon IXUS 950IS or you can also check out the new PowerShot SX110IS.

Suggested retail price: $319

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Review: Samsung NV24HD camera

The first time I saw this camera was on a bus! It was one of those rare outdoor ads that had captured my attention. I was curious to find out what those tiny buttons around the screen were for. And its wider lens and HD video feature! I was lucky enough to be able to take this black beauty for a test drive and here’s my experience with Samsung NV24HD camera.

For me, I’ll group this as a fun and compact camera. The built and feel of the camera is very steady and firm. It’s slim enough to fit into your back pocket but not light enough for you to hang around the neck. This is the camera for those who likes to take self-shots of your friends and yourself. It’s 15.5mm lens is wide enough for group shots like the one below…

The built-in flash is also better as compared to some of the cameras I’d used before. The dual-bust flash give a more even spread lighting even in the darkest places. Like the photo below, we were inside the Singapore Flyer capsule at night with very low lighting. But the photo turned out pretty well with flash on.

Being a FullHD video camera user, I know I cannot compare the HD quality taken with this camera to that of a HD video camera. However the quality is still acceptable for personal consumption. The video is more grainy as compared to the videos taken with my IXUS. My first video taken with this camera was when my Threadless arrived. Despite the grains showing on the videos, I still like the wider lens of this camera as I can capture a wider view with the HD video. Below are two short clips (unedited) of the view I had on top of the Singapore Flyer and of Wall.E’s visit to the Singapore River…

And finally these are the many buttons that got me curious about the camera…

the buttons go along the bottom and side of the screen.

Here are few more photos taken with the Samsung NV24HD camera…

Indoor with good lightings

Handheld inside capsule at night

The advantage of wider lens…

You can capture more within your frame!

And you can also view other photos in my previous posts here and here.

Overall verdict of this camera…
Great as an anytime camera. Bring it wherever you go and capture the action and moments with ease. However the capturing and processing speed is rather slow and at times when the lighting is super low and when taking photo without flash, you’ve to hold the camera very still while its capturing and processing. Else the photo might be blurred. I quite like the use of the small touch buttons around the screen. This prevents fingerprints to get on the screen while changing settings as compared to a touch-screen camera. The photo-style dial on the left side of the camera comes in handy too as you can easily switched between the various setting without having to call out the menu.

More details here.

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Claud’s latest Gadget Discovery

In this section, I will be posting short notes of some gadgets which I discovered and am attracted to. Nothing much to read though, it’ll be just images and short blurbs about them. If you’ve any cool gadgets to recommend to me, you can drop me a note here.

The Lenovo U110 Ultraportable IdeaPad notebook

What I like? It’s super small and steady built. And the sexy texture cover!

Check out the swirls and texture!

Photo from Switched by Darren Murph.

What I don’t like? Try running Adobe Photoshop on it and I’ll cry!!

Suggested retail price: $2799 | More details here

Sony Cyber-shot T77

What I like? It’s sleek body and beautiful colors! And the simplicity of use.

My favorite color for T77…

Yummilicious brown!

What I don’t like? Hmm… the price tag I guess. :(

Suggested retail price: $549

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This limited edition The Days t-shirt can be yours!

This is Baby (Ivan Lim) from The Days in the T-shirt

For the first issue of CtG, I’m giving away a limited edition The Days t-shirt which I bought during the blog aloud session. According to the ladies behind the counter, this t-shirt cannot be found anywhere else!!

The behind…

To win this stylo-milo t-shirt, all you need to do is to tell me what you would like to see in the future issues of Claud talks Gadgets. E.g. what type of gadgets you hope Claudia to talk about, what sections you want Claudia to add in, you want to see Claudia *cough* posing *cough* with the gadgets etc etc… I will than pick a lucky winner from the lot and you’ll win this stylo-milo t-shirt! Simple right? So start commenting now lah! Wait what wait?

Another lucky winner will win this set of The Days postcard autographed by some of the stars themselves!

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That’s all for the first issue of Claud talks Gadgets. I hope you like it and do share your feedback, good or bad with me. You can drop me a comment below, or send a private message to me here.

Alright! Now to start collecting more gadgets for the next issue of Claud talks Gadgets! See ya!

If you’re from the late 1970s to 1980s, you will 99.9% be able to relate to the movie The Days.

Based on a true story of the director, Boi Kwong, and his brother, The Days is set between 1989 and 1990. In a misguided effort to teach his younger brother, Baby (Ivan Lim) independence and to make him feel protected in those days of gangsterism, Tai Zi aka Zi Long (Justin Chan) brings Baby into his own gang lead by their gang leader Jeremy Tan (Anthony Levi Kho).

The Days shows a true uniquely Singapore style of gangsterism during the 1980s. Although these gangs may still be around now, but they’ve somehow morphed themselves into a very different style with cultural influence from Japan, Hong Kong or the Americans. Today you’ll hardly find those kind of gangsterism styles from back in the 80s. Those days, gangs were decked out in high-end labels in bright (super bright!) colorful clothes and their sense of fashion was highly personalised. And not forgetting the center-parting with long long fringe and sideburns! GOSH!! YES! I remember those days when I was in secondary school!! Those with backups will act super gangsters in school and scare the rest of us who’re not in any gang or “society”. In order not to step onto these gangsters tail, we stay as far as we can from them and don’t even dare take a second look at them! Afraid of being trashed by their brothers and sometimes sisters!

Tai Zi holding back his fist when his dream gal appeared

Some other interesting things that I related pretty well with from the movie…
When Durian Uncle talks…
Whenever an elder generation tries to talk to us, we will find them nagging and noisy. We just refused to listen to their sharing of experiences and telling us to do things the right way. That happens to me too! And I think its a norm in most of the younger generation than and now.

The dancing in the club…
Oh yes! Flashback of the very first time I stepped into a club! It was at Spark! Or was it Canto? Whichever it was, that night was a whole new experience for me. I’ve heard of tea dance from my friends, but never been to one. (I was the good girl mah! *cough*) I recall those lightsticks! Those techno beats! And the swinging of hands around the hugeee circumference of the dancer! LOL!

It’s not about the revenge. It should be about the lesson learned.

I shall not disclose too much about the film. It’s only 100min and with quite a lot of Bai Zui (fighting) scenes. I would say this film gets a higher rating from me than 12 Lotus and 881! I’m giving it a 4.8 out of 5 stars!

I hope this show will help educate and wake up those kids who’re currently in that transition stage. Sadly this show is rated NC16 though. Hope they’ll be able to get approval from the authorities to make it a PG show. Other than the fighting, I don’t see why this show should be NC16. If I were teaching in a secondary school, this is one of those film that I would want to bring my entire class to watch.

I’m ending off with some interesting discovery I made during and after the Blog Aloud session after the movie…

Aren’t these facial expressions and stare familiar?

Valerie (Adora Wong) is much much prettier in person!
Shan Shan (Adele Wong) her real life sister is also very pretty!

Dog (Derrick R) is a mixed of Chinese and Indian!

Okok! If you’re too lazy to read this long whining post of mine, just watch this promotional trailer for The Days! (But I guess by now, you would have read all the above already right? Wahahahah!)

And FINALLY…. the two pretty ladies that were with me tonight…

molemole and honeymeow

For more information about the show, visit their official website at http://www.thedaysmovie.com or join their facebook group here.

Support local productions! Go watch The Days! Bring your entire family and gang!

Just found this! Justin sings Crossroad…

P/S: I’ve actually taken some videos from tonight’s session. And there’s also some funny clips of the 3 of us talking about the show! But… the files are damn huge and I’m too tired to edit them now. Will keep them for another post! I’ve got prizes to give away too!! Look out for it! I’ve decided to skip the videos as I can’t seem to edit it. :( As for the prize, I’ll be giving it away in my first issue of Claud talks Gadgets! Hohoho! Working on it now…

Here are more links to those who were at The Days Blog Aloud…
Mr Brown’s vodcast
Molemole’s Ah Lian Days! – MUST READ!!
Wishbone’s Teenaged Days
Honeymeow shared her days

As for the prize, hmm… I’ll see what I can dig out from my trash or depends on how much I’ve left in my wallet next week! >_<

Since I’ve so many photos taken with different cameras, I’m going to do another mini-contest! Come give it a try! A mystery prize up for grab!

Guess which cameras these photos are taken with. If you’ve been reading my posts regularly, you should be able to spot the answers quite easily. And to help make things even easier for you, I’m going to list down the cameras which I’ve been using and you match them with the photos ok? See I so nice right?

Ok, the list of cameras include:

*Do note that some of the above cameras may not match with any of the photo. And some may have more than one photo below too. ^_^

Here are the photos…

Photo #01 [answer here]

“hmm… this contest sounds tricky.”

Photo #02 [hint:moblog]

Wall.E is roaming at Raffles City!

Photo #03 [answer here]

Nice colors of the building!

Photo #04 [answer here]

Lovely day for a bike outing

Photo #05 [answer here]

Dirty Wall.E!

Photo #06 [hint: none of the above]

“Hmm… why so many me?

Contest closes at 2359 hr on 12 Sep 2008. Submit your answers to mail (at) claudia (dot) sg! Don’t post answers in comments ok! We don’t want to leak any more clues to other contestants!

Include your name, email address and blog url (if any) together with the answers in the following format:
Photo #01 – answer
Photo #02 – answer
Photo #03 – answer
Photo #04 – answer
Photo #05 – answer
Photo #06 – answer

Good luck!!

Jermaine is sooooo cute lah! Not in the *ahem*oh-so-cute-guy*cough* kind of cute. Jermaine’s the wah-so-funny-lah kind of cute. Got it? Weirdly, Jermaine reminds me of a blogger leh! Thinks NTT!!!

So how the hell did I know about Flight of the Conchords? All thanks to HBO for taking their first step to reaching out to the new kind of media (Social Media?), I shall call it the blogger-dia. Hmmm… moving on…

This is one of the more exciting blogger event I’d attended. We got to check out HBO office!! How cool is that?!

Reception corner for that night

The office is spacious and very colorful! Love it! It was the kind of environment that I’d hope to work in, but don’t think I’ll ever get to work at such cool office lah. Having chance to tour around is already very cool!

Than we arrived at this super cool room! I presume its HBO’s recreation room. And its equipped with super systems and projector! This is also where the HBO crews gather every last Thursday (if I’d remembered correctly) of the month to watch the latest HBO show! So cool lah!

MTV of Flight of the Conchords was playing on the wall

View of the other side

Very nice right?? Love the vibrancy and warmth in the room! And the heart shaped cushion!! Some of us were tempted to sneak one home! Sadly, none of our bag was big enough! LOL!!

There were hotdog buns like the one below all around the office and room. And everyone of us got to bring one home that night too! If you want to know how this hotdog bun is related to Flight of the Conchords, well, go catch the show! Answer will be revealed in Episode 2! ^_^

Hotdogs anyone?

Before the show, we were split into smaller groups for a tour around the office. We got to see the many interesting work and editing rooms at HBO. And wow I was impressed! Especially the sound editing demo by Boris. And the broadcast studio where one man controls the entire broadcast of shows on HBO channels! That room is “WOW!” During the tour, Jerrick had a few seconds of fame in the filming room and in the recording room! “Ahhhhhh!” >_<

Group shot in front of two super bright yellow lights!

After the tour, everyone gathered back to the cosy room, where yummy New Zealand food and drinks was waiting for us! Drool baby drool!!!

And my favorite from that night…

Tuna with celery roll! (I NEVER eat celery but I love this!)

There were so much food! The above are just some of those I managed to capture before anyone started grabbing them! HBO pampered us too much liao lah! And the lady boss from the catering cafe kept replenishing the food! No wonder it doesn’t seem to finish! *slurps*

Ok… when everyone has filled their tummy, it was time to fill our mind with good music-comedy – Flight of the Conchords!

Everyone gathered and seated comfortably

We watched Episode 2 and 3 of Flight of The Conchords, each lasting 30-minutes. Everyone was laughing and enjoying the show! We didn’t want to leave after both episodes ended! We wanted more more more!!!

Me, the Ugly Betty fan, even missed the first episode of Season 2 that night because of FOTC! Waaaaa!!!

The night ended with us doing what we do best… camwhoring!

Yap! We love the hotdog bun a lot! Hahaha! Everyone received a goodie bag from HBO. And the coolest thing inside?

Flight of the Conchords Soundtrack!!!

I’ve been listening to Jermaine and Bret sing for 2 days already!

I’m now a fan! FOTC rocks!!!

Can you imagine yourself doing those moves? If you do, you might just win yourself a Macbook Air!! Submit your very own original home video trailer for Flight of the Conchords℠ and for the very first time – see your creation being played across Asia on the HBO channel! Check out Flight of The Conchords Video Contest for details!

Thanks HBO and Text100 for giving Claudia the opportunity to join this wonderful event.

Updated 2 Sep 2008
Ops!! I just realised I didn’t share much about the show itself! This is what happened when you squeeze 3 posts together in one night. Youth.sg has got a great write-up on FOTC. Go check it out!