I am Audrey.

Who knew it could be worn so many ways! If only Singapore want this humid, I would totally try one every week. Which one's your favorite?

There are so many favorites I don't even know which one to choose!

I'm so insanely in love with this page right now. It's absolutely hilarious and spot on on how I feel and have felt every day of my life since I started working in public relations. Hail the person who created this Tumblr!

More goodness here: http://99problemsbutapitchaintone.tumblr.com/

 

When waiting for your coverage to air...

I'm so guilty of this. And I make excuses... all the time. It also doesn't help that I love watching TV and my ass can be stuck on the couch for hours and hours if I get hooked on a TV series marathon -- and no, it's obviously not cable. Hate ads. So disruptive.

Came across this article "How To Be More Interesting (In 10 Simple Steps)" on Forbes.com and seriously, I'm going to blow up the above image and stick it on a wall where I can see it everyday. I've been complaining that I've become a really un-interesting person since I've moved to Singapore and there really is no one to blame but myself.

Sure, it's super helpful that I try to watch everything on History Channel, Discovery Channel, TLC, Food Network, BBC Lifestyle, Nat Geo since Discovery Networks is a client, but where does that all stop?

How bad is the situation? I go from screen to screen everyday: I wake up with an alarm app on my iPhone, check emails on my BlackBerry and Facebook on the my iPhone on my commute to work, plonk my ass at my workstation with two monitors -- yes, two: an external monitor and my laptop -- and while commuting to meetings, I check my BlackBerry and iPhone continuously. And when I get home, I turn on the TV, flip channels and then hop onto my home PC to connect it to my TV to watch the latest episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Big Bang Theory, Glee, 2 Broke Girls, etc. What do I do when there are no new episodes? I flip through TV channels or my eyes will be glued on my iPad reading my fave sites on Flipboard. The last thing I see before I head to bed? Check that the alarm on my iPhone is set for the next day. S-I-G-H. 

So my solution: Stop complaining, go out and do something.

Photo was too awesome to not post. Have no clue what Al Pacino and Christopher Walken are doing. Just look how high Walken's pants are hiked up!

More here:
http://awesomepeoplehangingouttogether.tumblr.com/

-- Audrey

Whether your brand currently has a Twitter account or planning for one, tips and reminders are always helpful.

Source: http://www.masiusonline.com/twitter-for-business-infographic#

 

Taken at Teppei Japanese Restaurant

I love lists. LOVE LISTS. I once read, "Make a list, you'll feel better" and honestly, it does. This is partially the mini OCD/control freak part of me making the calls, but hey, it's worked for me so far.

Point of the post: I was housekeeping my IMDB lists -- told you I loved them -- Watchlist and Ratings. My Watchlist is somewhat sad looking, considering it's mostly foreign and indie flicks that I don't have access to in Singapore or the random Hollywood movie that's deemed non-commercial therefore distributors in Singapore won't take the risk of screening it. My Ratings list -- spent my morning cleaning that out and reevaluating how I rate movies. The boyf thinks I rate my movies purely by emotion. If an actor completely annoyed the hell out of me, the movie gets a big fat "1" (because there are no zeros on the scale) regardless of whether or not the movie had some decent/acceptable moments.

I struggled with my Ratings list. What makes a movie a 9 instead of a 10? How much do I have to hate a movie to rate it a 1 vs a 2 or 3? I know, I know, it's just a freakin' rating system, why am I wasting my time getting all worked up about it? Because it reflects who I am, that's why! I tried rationalizing that if a movie hits me intellectually and emotionally, it goes into the 10 pile. Within that rationale, it made sense for American History X (I cried for a good 20 minutes while the credits rolled) and Shortbus to be on there but why Gangs of New York, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Moulin Rouge? So I revised my rationale for the 10s: Story plots are super important to me and so are things like new and never-before-seen ways of telling the story and simply put, artistic sensibility. Which is why movies like Prestige, The Matrix, Hedwig (although Origin of Love will always be one of my top songs of all time) and Sepet are on there.

Then it made me question the movies rated 9 -- what about them did not work for me that it wouldn't be a 10? Sigh. I really liked A Single Man, Old Boy and Tears of the Black Tiger and would recommend this to anyone who would listen -- though, on second thought, not everyone because doubt your average moviegoer would be able to stand the pacing, the subtitles or the melodramatic backdrops.

My resolution:

• My 9 & 10s will be treated somewhat equally. If they were my kids, I would love them all the same. With a few special ones taking having a special place in my heart.
• The 8s are the ones that are good movies that I liked, but just missing that sparkle.
• The 6 & 7s are decent movies - but more of rent a DVD / torrent it rather than you must watch it on the big screen. Together with the 8s, give me a year and I'll probably forget some of the details of the movie.
• The 3, 4 & 5s are really "meh" movies with 3 bordering on the 1 & 2s, the pariah of the family, the "I can't believe I just wasted two hours of my life and $10 on this crap."

I also realize while housekeeping that I don't rate enough movies. According to my list, I've only rated about 88 movies, which is about the number of movies I watch in 10 months, converservatively. Decided to make it a point to rate all movies that I watch from now on, and idealistically, I might just go through all my ticket stubs and start rating the movies I've seen in the past year(s).

What annoys me is that because I've had my IMDB account way before everyone started linking everything to Facebook, I can't seem to figure out how to merge my existing IMDB account with my Facebook, if I were to use Facebook to login to IMDB. So if you do -- share!

So what's tops on your IMDB list?

So...the Oscars came and went. The Artist made a sweep with Best Picture, Actor in a Leading Role and Directing; The Descendants were snubbed except for Adapted Screenplay and Christoper Plummer and Octavia Spencer went home with the golden naked man for Supporting Roles.

Sadly, my Picks & Predictions were way off, with only a 50% hit rate. Ah wells, guess it means I just don't get old white people of the Academy.

Love chancing upon unexpected finds and even more so in Singapore! Hanging out with the boyf near his office on Amoy Street and meant to get coffee at Sarnies on Telok Ayer Street (which he can't seem to stop talking about). But Sarnies was closed so I was sent down the street to bring caffeine back to the office - and two doors down from Sarnies, tadaa -- a quirky odds & ends store completely inviting me to take a walk down memory lane -- from street signs, to old mooncake paper bags, wooden stools, metal calendars. You name it, you'll probably find it here. Love! I don't know the exact address but it should be around 130-135 Telok Ayer Street.

The store just screams: Rummage me!

Counting down to the Oscars but sadly, it'll be Monday morning in Singapore and I doubt my excuse of "I'm watching the Oscars, so I'll be in after lunch" is going to fly. But heck, it's once a year so here are My Picks: Films & talents that I think deserve to win and My Prediction: Films & talents that the old, white fogeys at the Academy will pick to take home the little, naked golden man.

Disclaimer: I haven't seen the following movies that have Oscar nominations (for various reasons), so if you think my picks are way off because I haven't seen them, please holler!

• On my to-watch list: Moneyball, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, A Better Life, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Albert Nobbs
• Don't think these will make it to my watch list: War Horse (can't do movies with horses in them... but if I'm stuck on a 12-hour flight and have nothing else better to watch, I will), Tree of Life (gave up after two attempts, had enough of frame after frame of people gazing thoughtfully at curtain-less windows in rooms bathed in natural light)

 

Audrey's Picks

• BEST PICTURE - HUGO
• ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE - JEAN DUJARDIN (This one's not entirely fair as I'm a fan of Gary Oldman and Brad Pitt, and I've only seen The Artist and The Descendants)
• ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE - MERYL STREEP or GLENN CLOSE (Another tough one. Streep's good in almost everything she's in and I haven't seen Albert Nobbs, but from the trailer alone, Glenn Close is amazing in it. I love Michelle Williams' style -- helps that she was Heath's wife and mother of Matilda -- she's decent as an actress and it was a good effort playing Marilyn but I kept seeing Michelle rather than Marilyn. Rooney Mara gets props but honestly, it was more David Fincher than Mara at work.
• ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER (This was an easy one!)
• ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - BERENICE BEJO (Here's where I don't get it: why is Bejo considered in the supporting role category instead of lead?)
• DIRECTING - MARTIN SCORSESE (Hands down. No doubt. The man deserved an Oscar way before The Departed and I hate to say this, but the original Infernal Affairs was a better movie, at least the actors were better.) 

 

Audrey's Predictions

• BEST PICTURE - THE ARTIST
• ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE - GEORGE CLOONEY (My take is the Academy will not give Best Picture and Actor in a Leading Role to the same movie, so it's one way or the other with The Artist and The Descendants)
• ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE - GLENN CLOSE
• ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER
• ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - OCTAVIA SPENCER (Why in the world is Jessica Chastain nominated and Bridesmaids was not funny at all. Everyone keeps describing Bridesmaids as a female version of The Hangover, but seriously, it was more akward and gross, barely got a chuckle from me.)
• DIRECTING - ALEXANDER PAYNE

 

Zhuang's Predictions

• BEST PICTURE - THE ARTIST
• ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE - JEAN DUJARDIN
• ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE - MICHELLE WILLIAMS
• ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER
• ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - OCTAVIA SPENCER
• DIRECTING - TERRENCE MALICK

 

Head over to The 84th Academy Awards web site for more: http://oscar.go.com/nominees