it's late, I have things to do, but with the immediacy and distractedness that is the internet, this post is just to chronicle things I've read/ what I've heard of recently.

SO. Big things first.

BestWishesFromNL is considering the state of their channel; given that the girls find it hard to post regularly, would it be best to just end things, since the videos are kind of sporadic at the moment. As in, end with a bang. Although, as inspired by Ze Frank and the founding fathers of nerdfighteria, they would very much like to continue, it's just that they are getting busy, what with school and work and so forth. AND it's very reasonable that they can't find the time-- it's hard to allocate 1-2 hours at a go a week to film and edit a decent video, as experience can attest >.> especially when you're studying for exams.

It would be sad to see BWFNL go, although it's hard to disagree that the situation hasn't changed since the girls started their channel. I think. When they first began they were just getting to know each other, and were very excited by nerdfighteria/ getting to know nerdfighters in NL, so there was more motivation to make videos every week? But now they visit each other a lot and have gatherings and communicate on skype; they're past the "omg we're so excited" stage? So making videos is less of a priority since they can communicate with the other girls not just through videos, but through letters/ hanging out irl.

SECOND

JB Dazen (youtube musician from NL) was talking about what he thought about twitter:
Even Weirder:

Young people dying in the age of Twitter. Reading their trivialities, carelessly unleashed onto the information superhighway, not even 24 hours ago, oblivious of the rapidly approaching and sudden end. I’ve seen it a few times these last days. I should start thinking about every tweet I post. Every single one could be my last, and I could think of a lot of things I wouldn’t want people to read after my sudden passing. At least @arjengrolleman went out on a nice philosophic musing. As if he did know it was his last.

Issue 1: I've always thought about what happened when people on twitter died. What would happen on their page? If you brought your password to your grave, would the twitter moderators edit what is shown on your account? Would they delete your account? How indelible will your mark be on your corner of internet real estate? What if your online friends didn't know you died? And the question JB Dazen raises: "What kind of mark would you leave on the internet?"

Issue 2: The quality of tweets on Twitter, and the function of twitter. There are some who have mentioned before that talking about what you had for lunch on twitter is a very self-indulgent, egoistic act, to have to announce to everyone precisely what you are thinking at precisely that moment.

Exciting exciting exciting NEWS

omg omg omg

(okay tomorrow I won't be as pumped but I guess it's time to MILK it while I can)

I could be a book blogger! As in, a REAL book blogger. All you have to do is contact a publicist from a publishing house, and if they like your blog, they will send you review copies! Or advance reader copies, which are BETTER. eeep I mean you have to have an audience and things, and you have to have reviewed stuff before, but the thing is I HAVE :D

Ok maybe not the audience part, but I've reviewed stuff before and they have gone in the retarded youth section of the sunday paper but STILL that is kind of ish a portfolio! AND if I review stuff from publishing houses I get free books! Which are way better than movie tickets that the paper sometimes forgets to send.

Additional motivation? A few months ago I came across this channel, and the person on it reviews books, and she reviewed something and I was like: "Where the HECK did you get free ARCs?" and she replies, all cool and everything, "Oh, it's nothing, the publishers send them to me."

EEP and it's not even work to me! I love writing reviews I love reading books it's not that hard to hoar myself out on the interwebs (okay it is pretty hard to get an audience but just ignore that part please) And it's... idk I like thinking about books I like going deeper into themes and motifs and going all Lit on it-- it's not _hard_ Heck, if they want me to bootlick them I might even consider it. One year of GP (general paper) has given me all the experience I need to be a sweet-talking smartass. Because! Free BOOKS! (it's the cheap student in me talking) Although. Readers might be a bit skeptical about my reviews if I say even crappy stuff is good... but they WOULDN'T KNOW, right? If they gave me ARCs, it means no one else has got them yet, so no one will know if the book is good or bad!

Though. Seriously. I don't think I'll say I like something if I really don't; I'll be doing enough of that in GP, thanks. Don't need to sell my soul to something else.

More about book bloggers:

What would be your do’s and don’ts for new book bloggers wanting to get in touch with a publicist about requesting a book for review?

I think really the only advice I could give is to show your keenness – try to have reviewed some books off your own back already, because it’s difficult to send out review copies when you can’t see anything that gives you a feel for how that blogger works. If they started their blog six months ago and have only updated once a month, I’m probably going to be a little more hesitant about sending review copies. That said, I will usually always send out at least the first request – if a review never appears, I might think twice the second time…

Also – one thing I would do if I were starting out as a blogger is take advice from some of the girls who run the bigger book blogs, because they’re all very friendly and in the know. Some of my favourites are Waiting on Wednesday and In My Mailbox (this as a v-log is really fun too!)– it brings a nice variety to the blogging format.

an interview with a publicist from Simon and Schuster here: http://bit.ly/6U9mpE

After watching this, I suppose it's a good a time as any to write an obligatory end-of-year thank you post. I've been wanting to do this for a couple weeks now, just waiting for the end of year to come, and it has come and gone, so this post slightly overdue. I'm just going to go ahead and mention names but this is always cause for concern because you're worried someone is going to feel left out. HECK it's the one time of the year you're thankful for the people around you, might as well acknowledge them properly. The following is in no particular order.

In 2009, I'm eternally grateful for the people around me, and (dare I say) the books I've read, things I've experienced, and internet memes I've participated in :p

heh ok serious tiemz.

Easy things first! To geeru and michele, thanks for being a phonecall away and for entertaining me when I'm insanely bored/ worried/ angsty. I love being able to squee with you guys about anything, and knowing that you will squee back. Thank you for letting me whine on end. You've always been witty and enjoyable to be around, and even though it's been a little busy this year, I appreciate that you've taken time out to just chat and catch up. Thanks for reminding me to do my math/chem/ various bits of undone work, and for pulling me back on track when my obsessive fangirling gets the better of me. You've always been the loveliest people ever, and I never hug you enough xD, so here's one. *hug*

To POOKY/ mustardrabbit: you've been an awesome friend this year, and I'm amazed we've managed to keep in touch till now. I'm aware tumbleweedrabbits has been revamped, and looking forward to another year of epic photos and videos :) It was a pity I couldn't come see you this year, but in the meantime, we'll still make lots and lots of plans to go tour europe, share an apartment, visit melbourne, etc. I love love love your sense of art and photography, and your tastes <33

To kimberly/ ifancyharrypotter (awesomesauce username, by the way): I never imagined that singaporean nerdfighters existed till I met you. It was so coincidental, the way we met in youtube comments, that I attribute this to good karma. A year ago I could never squee with someone about mugglecast and other nerdfightery things, but now I can. I never knew so much about good tv shows--I'd almost lost faith in good television, but you have convinced me otherwise! The penpal thing was a great idea, and it's so cool to receive stuff in the mail, and basically just lots of handwritten awesome. Good luck for the coming school year, especially with Math-- I'm sure you'll do well :) What do you think about leakycon 2011? ;)

To hailee/ iAmortentia: This time last year I remember being so super excited about the collab channel we were planning :D haha and that time we were kind of certain it would happen... but it didn't. But! In the process of finding participants, we met lots of awesomez people, yes? And I remember being so excited when you youtube-messaged me xD It's been great, looking forward to an email from you every now and then, and writing an email back. I like hearing about your life and school-- it's very interesting to know about how school is like in the US. Cultural exchange, if you will. Although, judging by our interests, it's not as if we're very different from each other :D Looking forward to SKYPE (darn time differences) and more collabs, if you know what I mean ;)

To Anke, Lisette, Lotte, Ilse, Lidewij, Sanne and Jonneke (The bwfnl girls in ORDER :D) It was so so great spending 2009 with you guys. Even if I only started watching in march/ april, getting to sub for your channel made me feel as if I was really participating and contributing to a piece of youtube, so that was awesome. AND I got to know a bunch of other subbers-- princeword/Martin, Zoe, Thekla, who led me to other people... and the rest is history. It's so exciting, learning more about the Netherlands from your channel, and especially spending p4a with the european nerdfighters-- Heleen, Tom, Lidewij.... p4a was mostly better this year because I had a bunch of people to spamwow WITH, and unabashedly hang out together on twitter. Because of you guys, I'm *actually* considering spending a summer in NL/ europe to meet up... and to check out the art/culture/ lifestyle. All the best for videos in 2010, I can't wait for more stuff from your channel! (tbh, yours was one of the few channels that actually survived for the whole year-- other collabs I subscribed to kind of petered out halfway-- YAY for staying power :D)

To Nerdfighteria! and the community, thank you for giving me hope and, to quote a song-- "peace and love and happiness in everything (I) do". Because of you, I've realised that you can be a respectable, working adult and STILL be freaking awesome, and do what you like. Honestly, before this, I thought growing up meant getting a boring job that you hate and not having time to spend on doing what you like. (Naive, I know ><) This meant giving up on producing anything creative, and giving up on being proud of what you do. After meeting people who are actively pursuing their interests, I've realised that majoring in, say, Conservation Biology is a realistic possibility, and now I have a clearer picture of what I'd like to do in the future. To explain, the mindset here/ amongst my peers is that you won't get anywhere unless you pursue a professional degree, i.e. medicine, engineering, finance, architecture, law-- other options are just a waste of money and time. There's also the view that academically strong people take on only these degrees, and the rest aren't as capable. I'm really grateful to Nerdfighteria because you decrease worldsuck, and I'm honoured to be a part of what we stand for :D

--I'm going to start getting synonyms for "awesome", I seem to have a poor vocabulary--

To the people from writer's fest, even though you might not read this, you've made me very happy :) to annjie, shuian, jiamin, loki, darran, debby, kiru, gekyong+ volunteers, you know who you are! Thanks for showing me an amazing time and recommending me lots of books and... eep. It was just very remarkable to have met so many book nerds (like me heh) who read even More than I do, and who believe in bringing writing to the people, and who believe in learning lots about authors, especially from different cultures. I also learnt lots about local writing, and through this/ because of this? I can talk to @sarahcoldheart on twitter, thereby meeting even MORE book people in singapore. You all are incredibly funny and I take immense pleasure in your company, and you've also taught me about... organising things, common sense (of which I am sorely lacking), and working in general. I really hope we can meet up more and partake in entertaining (illicit? xD) activities in the year to come :D

*phew* okay done. covered all the bases.

THANK YOU EVERYONE! *slinks away in drunk stupor*

this is kind of for my own reference, heh. but Delias is having a clearance sale! and it has this:

which is $14 SGD and they have it in my size! when I'm looking for a decent cheap swimsuit. The shipping might cost a lot, though, so I might share with a friend like last time.
Now to look for a bottom... *sigh* they have bottoms my size but they don't match this. Or I could get a bottom first and a matching top-- bottoms start from $4USD=$5.60SGD! Will keep looking.

they have this in clearance too:

at $30USD = $42.15SGD which is quite affordable compared to what's in shops. And it's cotton, so I can wear it in warmer climates ^^

this is $10USD=$14SGD:

and it's kind of-ish nice, but with the price, I'd buy it if I only really had to, to get free shipping or something.

wrockstock shirt! but it's at $15USD=$21SGD which is quite expensive, heh.

the hush sound! I actually like the band, heh. at $6USD=$8.40SGD hmm *considers*

That's it. I might get the swimsuit, though, seeing as it is really hard to get a nice one here. Anyone? Who wants to spree? They have dresses, sandals, lots of graphic tees.

Oh this is such a fluffy way to start 2010 :D