The hunt for the perfect hairdo!

There comes a time, or rather, many times, in all girls' lives when they look at themselves in the mirror and think "I need a new look!" And that time has arrived yet again for yours truly. Before this, I always went to the hair saloon requesting for my 'usual' cut... medium length V-shaped layered cut. Occasionally I'd get my hair dyed my favourite colour, red, but it would always eventually end up brown (cheapo hair dyes!). The most adventurous do I've ever had was a long perm, which turned out rather weird, especially when my normal hair grew so half my hair was curly and half of it was straight (I have my horrendous IC picture to prove it). As such, I've learned that perms are a big no-no for me.... though perhaps it was just permed to be wavy, it would still look pretty good. Just no Maggi Mee styles!

Lately I was thinking how nice it would be if there was some way to see how different hairstyles looked on me before actually doing it at the saloon... and today a spark went off in my head.... there probably IS a way to 'experiment' with different hairstyles...through the internet! There must be some website or program that allows people to upload their photos and try out different types of do's... So I did the search, and the first website I found was Stellure.com. It's a very cool website where users can upload a pic of themselves, and it become a 3D model on which you can sort of 'cut and paste' different hairstyles on your computer model to see how it looks at all angles! Very da cool! Only one slight-ish problem...you gotta pay for the software before you can use it. So for extremely kiamsup people like me who likes everything free and also doesn't trust the security of anything paid through the net, Stellure.com was not a option. So I tried to search for similar but free websites....and mostly came up with a bunch of similar hairstyling softwares that also have to be paid for.

Finally, after a long and tiresome search (ok lah, not that long...) I found the Makeover-O-Matic Virtual Makeover Game! Does the same thing as Stellure, except the uploaded photos and do's can only be seen from the front view, no angles. Which is much better than nothing! Admittedly, the number of hairstyles available there to experiment with isn't much, but it's not too bad. And if you can't find what you want there, there is also MakeoverSolutions.com, which you can do exactly the same thing, but there are other hairstyles to play with... The demo version for this is free with only about 100 styles to play with, but of course if you are willing to fork out moolah, a motherload of other hairstyles will become available for you to feed your hunger for different do's. Still the demo version was good enough for me, coz' I found lots of looks I liked from these two websites alone.

Both sites allowed me to try putting the hairstyles of various celebrities on my pic.... and the results were quite interesting, and I have complied some of the more interesting looks into 3 categories:
1) Celebrity hairdos that look pretty good (on me)!
2) Celebrity looks that should stay on celebrities (not on me)!, and
3) Celebrity looks that are just plain funny (on me)!


For Category No. 1, the Cameron Diaz and Catherine Z.J. looks both are radically different, but I like them both. Cameron's short bob looks pretty good on me.... I wouldn't even mind dying my hair to that colour too! Catherine's do, however, is long and slightly curly which is sooo totally glamorous baby! BUT it's obviously very high maintenance, and I prefer to keep to the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid!).

I was surprised that No. 3 and 4, although very different from what I would normally do, actually do look quite alright on me. I like the colour of Kelly's do (which wasn't actually her do, just that it looks like a hairstyle she would have ;)), but I don't think gravity-defying ability of this do would last long. No.4 looks like a style similar to what Charlize Theron would have (except blonde, not black). It's looks....ok on me...perhaps it would have been nicer with more colour and if my makeup was less goth in this pic (did I mention both websites allow you to change your picture's makeup too? Yes, it's very cool!)

Now for Category No.2, we have the celebrity looks that look good on them but definitely not on me .Jennifer Aniston's hair looks great on Jennifer.... not on me. Drew Barrymore hair makes me look like an unbalanced mushroom. Halle Berry's hair kinda makes me look likes I was electrocuted by the Mad Science Van der Graff generator. The best looking do among these four actually seems to be the Scary Spice afro do.... haha! And we all know the only way I'd get that do is if I was going to a Halloween party dressed at Scary Spice... or maybe one of the Alleycats....


And for the 3rd and final category of celebrity makeovers, I have here all the looks that I should never attempt to try. Even in my wildest dreams. Coz' they just look dumb. Take the classic beehive, which is a popular look with Amy Winehouse. Now she can miraculously pull off a beehive without looking like a Conehead with hair. I, on the hand, am not quite blessed with the features for pulling off the beehive. As for No.2, I think I would go for this look if I was auditioning for a role in Hairspray 2. But I don't think I ever would coz' as much as I appreciate the incredible amount of hard work that must've gone into making that musical, the ridiculous amount of fake grins and over-exaggerated excitement in that movie almost made me want to gag. The Macy Gray look, well, that a look that should be reserved for the black sistas' and them alone.... And last but not least... the classic 80's rock band look. This hairdo would probably give me sudden urges to dance to Van Halen's 'Jump'.

Of course, why those styles above would look rather ridiculous on me, they are nothing compared to come of the other wild and wacky do's I found on the websites. And so, I present to you.... the Top 6 hairstyles I'd get if I went completely bonkers! Complete with lame punchlines, which I shall put at the side as well, since the pictures came out smaller than I intended....


7) "I'm a big fan of yours... really I am!"


6) Scientists have just discovered a new species of giant blue sunflowers.... growing on my head!"


5) "With this device, the Martians will surely be able to contact me now...


4) "What? It's not the 80's anymore?? And I wasted all that hairspray..."


3) "Yes, I DO take up more bed space, but at least Astro doesn't go down anymore when it rains!"

2) "Anyone need some Kleenex?"





And the no. 1 Hairdo I would get if I went completely bonkers...

1) "Excuse me, is this your Shih Tzu that died on my head?"






So now that you've either laughed or puked yourself silly reading my lame-O punchlines, it's time to get serious and looksee at some of the styles I would consider for my next do:



8) Upswept gorgeous

Ok, I'm not planning to have this as a permanent do, but it IS something I might consider for a fancy event, like a big prom, or maybe my wedding. Looks a bit too high here though...should've placed the hair a little lower to make it look more balanced. Anyhow, I like the highlights too. Adds a nice touch. But so far, I haven't been bothered to get my tresses all teased up for any fancy event... and even for my wedding I think I'd prefer to look like a more gorgeous version of myself instead of a beehive queen wannabe. Oh well, it just looks nice.


7) A little flare

This is one of those styles that look pretty good here, but in real life, I think it just wouldn't work. For one, my hair doesn't have this kind of volume... Two, the flaring ends would probably make my face look bigger than it already is.. That wouldn't be good. So it's another nice one to look at... but not in real life!





6) Medium length coloured

A nice sleek, professional look. Looks pretty similar to styles I've had before... but again, my hair would suffer the lack of volume issue, so maybe it wouldn't work for me. And anyhow, it's not quite the different look I'm aiming for... but it still looks good.






5) The messy bob

I didn't think the messy look would suit me, but looking at this pic, I quite like the results. It's cute with a tinge of rebellious.... unfortunately it's also not very professional looking, which might not go down well where I work. So no go for the messy bob (maybe later on when I'm feeling exceptionally adventureous!)




4) Long with wavy ends

Surprisingly, this is one of the few medium length do's that I really liked (the others I really like are all short styles). It's quite a romantic, slightly glamorous look...and I love the wavy bit at the end. But looks a bit too high maintenance for someone who tends to jump out of bed in morning, run the brush through her hair a couple of times before flying out the door.







3) Cute short bob

This looks very good on me... very cute, quite neat, low maintenance... all very good traits. Only thing is that it's rather boring. No zing. Nice, cute, neat, but normal. Anyone can get away with this hairstyle, but I'd prefer something a bit more zing...






2) Cameron Diaz look

Ah yes, this is more like it! Also very cute and short, but the few longer strands at the sides at the 'oomph' to this look. Unfortunately, since this cut was taken directly off an actual pic of Cameron Diaz, I wasn't given the freedom to change the colour to match what I would prefer. Nevertheless, I'm sure it would still look good in black or reddish black. :) But as good as it looks, it's hairstyle No. 1 that really got me hook, line and sinker...which is....



1) Highlights take the prize!

This is it, ladies and gents! The look that I totally fell for the second I saw it! Not too short, not too neat. Slightly messy, but not too messy. And the blonde bleached highlights are FAAAb-ulous, baby! I like!

Of course, the main issue for this style would be the cost of the highlights, which I'm guessing would be purty high... And also, since I have dyed my hair red quite some time ago, I now have black hair closest to my roots while the rest is that annoying faded brown colour. So highlighting above this might look a bit strange.... unless I re-dye my hair at home first... then a week later, go to the saloon for this look. Hmm..... sounds likes a plan.

So anyway, ladies, now that you know these sites exist, try not to have too much fun experimenting with your look. Cheers!

The cure for SDA (Sudden Depression Attack)

It's been a while since I lasted blogged, the reason being that work has been keeping me pretty busy. My team spent the week before last preparing for a UAT (otherwise known as User Acceptance Test), which is the time when some of our TM clients come in to test the application that we designed for them and to determine if there are any issues that need to be fixed. This is naturally quite a critical time, as we have to deal face to face with our clients everyday for roughly two weeks... the first round starting last week. So I was a busy busy bee...up until last weekend when the Hari Raya holidays started and everyone gets to enjoy a nice long break. My break is especially long, as we Accenturians have to take forced leave for two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) for God knows what reason. I don't mind a nice long break, but when two days are deducted out of my annual leave against my will, it kind of makes me feel uneasy about whether I will have enough leave to last me the rest of the year or not.

Not that I am lacking in anything to do these holidays. I had to prepare worship stuff for the upcoming Discovery Days kids program at my church. I had my first worship practice for it with my worship team on Monday night, and it went better than I had anticipated, which is a good thing. Although the backups singers still need to get used to the idea of doing kiddie actions while singing (I got quite a few weird looks from them when doing actions for the song 'Superhero'. It's times like that when I'm glad I don't get embarassed easily. Kakaka!). I also had to write out my Performance Objectives, which is something all Accenture employees have to do once every year. The thing is that they need us to pinpoint exactly what objectives we hope to achieve, even though in reality we might not have any idea what that might be. And as tempting as it is to put it down, I doubt they would accept it if I just put my performance objective as "to make sure I do a good enough job that I don't get fired and hopefully qualify for pay increment next year and promotion in two years." I managed to put it off right up til today, and since it's my last day of holiday before it's back to the grind tomorrow, I figured I'd better get it over and done with. At least I get a chance to utilize my skill of writing crap while making it sound like I know exactly what I'm talking about. Something I used to do a lot during my university exams. Yes kids, as long as it sounds like you know what you're talking about, you should at least get a pass. Haha!

Anyway, even though I knew I would be somewhat busy during my break, I still had this little feeling of 'lostness' after church on Sunday, when it felt like I had nothing (or very little) to do over the next 3 days and a half (including Sunday after church). And it was that time that I came down with a sudden depression attack.... not just because of that lost "what-am-I-gonna-do-for-3-whole-days?" feeling but I think also because of other factors. One probably being that I quite recently (as in almost 3 weeks ago) broke up with Gerald and since we live 2 hours drive apart and usually only ever saw each other during long breaks, I couldn't help thinking that if we were still together, he probably would've come to visit me this holidays..... Probably, but not definitely... coz' he might've been too busy to come see me anyway. And that's part of the reason why I didn't think it would work out.... the long distance thing was quite an issue. It's difficult to see each other regularly when we're both busy with work, and I realized at times when we might need each other, it would be very difficult to be there for each other. And since I just started a new job and not moving anywhere anytime soon, I figured it was best to separate instead of keeping him waiting for me... when I don't even know if I'd ever go where he is. And then there were other issues like differences in beliefs, which I think would've become a pretty big issue if we had committed to each other. So logically, I know that ending it was probably the best thing for both of us and in a way, knowing that makes it easier... but of course when that nostalgic feeling comes back every now and then, that makes it all the more difficult. Like sometimes when I'm at a place or doing something that we've done together before, it reminds me of him and then I go into Nostalgia-land. Quite normal I suppose... but at least I'm not bawling my eyes out every night or something. I guess the fact that we hardly got to see each other kind of made the post-break up easier as well....*sigh* Well, now we agreed to not contact each other at all after that, which I'm not sure if it's good or bad coz' I would've liked to still know what's going on his life.... just as a friend instead of being emotionally involved. But I guess right now we both need some time apart to move on, and maybe later on we could just say hi to each other sometime and catch up. I do wish him well though, and hope he finds some girl closer to home.

And if going through a post-break up isn't difficult enough, throw in the fact that I also quite recently started taking interest in another guy. Which on it's own can already be quite an emotional headache... liking a guy but wondering if he likes me, and not wanting to get keep my hopes up coz' he might not like me but getting disappointed anyway coz' he shows no sign of being interested in me. Throw post-break up into the emotional mix and you'll get me feeling guilty for liking another guy so soon, and wondering if I'm one of those desperate girls who would happily jump from one relationship to the next. Though logically, I don't think I am that kind of girl... I knew my previous relationship was probably heading for the rocks for some time. But much as I know that getting into another relationship so soon after is probably a bad, baaaad, BAAAAAAD idea, I still am interested in another guy. But considering he really doesn't seem to be interested in me at all, that could be a good thing at this point in time... at least I will have time to release whatever emotional baggage I might have left over. Haha. Yay. Well, at my age, after liking a total of a gazillion guys and getting disappointed all the time, I think I learned by now that disappointments are to be expected. So now the number is a gazillion and one. No biggie. I'll get over it as I always do. Anyway, all this was yet another reason for my sudden depression attack on Sunday.

Another reason would be that someone at church totally irked me to bits after service, and effectively killed my spiritual high as well as my good mood for several hours after. The details of that incident, however, shall remain under wraps. I am considering having a private talk with this person with regards to that incident, so hopefully it won't happen again in the future. However, whether or not my talk with this person will have positive results, I have no idea. I have a strong suspicion that said person, under the DISC profile, is a strong D (for Dominant) personality. Apparently D people always like to be in control and either people like them a lot or don't like them at all. And even though D people are quite happy dishing out criticism to others, they are most likely not too good taking criticism about themselves.... unless they are in very good control of their D-ness. So this D person might just eat me alive for bringing up this issue.... and the fact that I'm a strong S (for Stable or Steady) doesn't make it much easier. S people do NOT like conflicts. Therefore I am not looking forward to bringing up this issue with said D person.... In fact, I'd be quite happy just forgetting about it and hoping I'll have very little to do with said D person in the future. But unfortunately that won't be the case as I do see this person often enough. So for the very same reason that I do not want any further conflicts or tension between us in the future, I feel it's best to bring it up sooner than later. But then again, my L (for Lazy) side may just take over at the last minute and decide to just let it slide *Insert dry laugh here*.

Well, as quickly as my depression attack came, it went off by the next day once I started making myself busy with Discovery Days prepping and doing those annoying Performance Objectives. I also kept myself occupied by playing around with Hero Machine 2.5, which is a cool website where you get to create your own superhero or superheroine. I guess I was watching too much "Who Wants to be a Superhero?", so I got bitten by the hero-creating bug and stumbled upon this website where I had quite a bit of fun creating some funky heroines, including a thief and mermaid and fiery female version of the Human Torch. I also went simple and created a cartoon version of myself... or perhaps a hotter looking version of myself. :P So anyhow, keeping myself busy successfully helped take my mind off those silly depressing thoughts. Today I also had worship practice, tomorrow I go back to work and have Christmas Carolling practice at night, and Friday I have cell group as usual. So I think I'll be sufficiently busy to not think depressing thoughts for quite a while. Ah yes... there's nothing like being a semi-workalic to keep me happy. :P

Dear Mr. Anonymous :)

Tsk, tsk, look at this interesting comment somebody put for my last post:


Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Shopping for work is fun! ;-)":

Oh my god, she actually has the guts to post her pics up here? I came here looking for some hot chick and what do I get? Dumbo the big fat blob!God, I'm going to puke.


Wow, I thought living a nice low profile internet life away from IRC and ICQ and other chat or forum sites would spare me having to deal with sad case guys with no life who are out for nothing more than to fulfill their kinky fantasies by getting on with anybody they meet on the net who's female. Apparently I was wrong.

Oh well, so sorry I didn't quite meet your expectations of a hot chick, Mr. Anonymous. However, although I won't deny I could lose a few pounds, I have enough self confidence to know that describing me as a 'fat blob' is grossly inaccurate and I can look attractive if I wanted to. Also, this is MY blog, and if I wanted to put pictures of the inside of my nose, I could dang well do so. I don't know if you're blind or you can't read, but the title of my blog is 'Naeem's Neverending Nonsense', NOT 'Naeem's Hot Chick Pics', so I'm wondering where you got the half-brained idea that you would find hot chick pics here. If you don't like the way I look, my extra pounds, or looking up the inside of my nose, you can dang well go search out your idea of a 'hot chick' at one of the gazillion porn websites that are out there.

Also, just so you know, the last time anyone has ever insulted my weight was when I was in primary school. From then on, the people I got to know were considerably mature enough not to judge me by my size. Hence, I can deduce, Mr. Anonymous, that you have the maturity equivalent of a primary school child. But then again, I won't dare conclude that as I happen to know a lot of nice, smart kids as well and I don't want to imply that their intelligence is anywhere as low as yours. And not only do you lack in maturity, Mr. Anonymous, but the fact that you didn't even put your name or any means of contact in that nice little comment of yours implies that you also lack the guts to know what I would have to say in reply to your sneaky little swipe at me. At least when kids made fun of my weight, they had the guts to do so to my face. Well, I won't stoop so low as to christen you with an insulting name like Dumbo. Your lack of maturity and manlihood pretty much speaks for itself.

So please, if it makes you puke that I have the confidence to put up not-so-good looking pics of myself on my blog, then go ahead and puke. And in case, you ever come back here again in the hopes that perhaps, maybe, HOPEFULLY you will get to see some hot pics of myself, well, here's a little something for you to remember me by....


Happy puking! :)

Shopping for work is fun! ;-)

So I've working at Accenture for about a month now and so far, it doesn't seem all that bad... though I can't say it's all that interesting either. Sitting in front of a computer for 9 hours (with a lunch break in between) hurts both my eyes and my rear. Fortunately, my workload is surprisingly still not that bad... in fact sometimes I don't really have much to do. On the other hand, my supervisors somehow manage to work until 10pm each day and come back to work even earlier than me the next morning. Which means either I'm not experienced enough to handle the work they need to do, or they're workaholics who have no life outside of the office. Perhaps it's both. Either way, I have always been an advocate of the Australian culture of going home right after working hours end... because there are other things important in life such as spending time with family, meeting friends, socializing, playing with gerbils (ok, maybe not that last one). And Aussies are certainly no less productive than we workaholic Asians... at least they don't overwork themselves to the point where they burn out and leave their jobs. So going home on time (not early, mind you) is a good practice that I hope to live out throughout my time here... though most people say my time to overwork will come soon enough. *Sigh* I sure hope Accenture will have enough manpower so that that day doesn't ever come!

Anyhow, now that I work for a big@$ corporate company, I've had to seriously change my style of dressing. Obviously, wearing t-shirts and jeans everyday like I did at Mad Science wouldn't go down well with the corporate stuffy people. So I was a bit worried that I wouldn't have enough working clothes to last me the first week. But by some miracle, I managed to find myself a different change of clothes every working day for the first month. Woohoo! Ok lah, I admit I cheated and stole some clothes from my mum... it does come in pretty handy when you have a mum with a pretty good sense of style.

And to seal my assimilation into the world of Accenture drones, the company kindly provided everyone from the Systems Integration and Technology workforce (that's my team) with some cool new gifts, apparently to commemorate the fact that our workforce has been expanding significantly. And among some of the gifts we got was a pretty nice looking shirt and a nifty laptop bag with a ton of compartments (which I liiiike...).
























We also got an Accenture umbrella, which I didn't bother to take a pic of coz' I left it in my car. But anyway, I'm really glad I decided not to buy a laptop bag before that.... the one they gave us is pretty bulky, but I can keep everything I need in it, including, of course, my company laptop. Aahhh, the perks of working in a big@$$ corporate company.....

I also had to do quite a bit of shopping for new stuff for my job, and something I REALLY wanted was a handbag that could turn into one of those cute little backpack-like bags... so when I want to look more 'professional' I could carry it as a handbag, but when I can be more casual, I could wear it backpack style. I didn't think I would find a bag like that, but lo and behold... I actually did find it at Mydin! Check it out below!






















I'm not usually the type to get excited about women's bags, but this bag is pretty cool.... even though it does have a few holes in some of the compartments. But for something I got at Mydin for only RM4.90 (normal price Rm9.90, but it's RM4.90 with purchases above RM20. Yes, I know...it's just too good to be true... but it IS!!!), I can live with the holes.

Another cool thing I bought from Mydin is a really watch with exchangable straps and faces. There are 5 different coloured straps and 9 different faces, so altogether I can make 45 different looks for the watch. Pretty neat, huh? Of course, some of the faces and straps don't really match, so there are some combinations that I would never use unless I turned colour-blind or fashion clueless. But anyway, check it out here:





















See, I can change my watch's look from:
1) Elegant white with 'bling' to match (best for fancy dinners), to
2) Classy red and gold (for work), to
3) Cool blue and silver (also for work), to
4) Cute and completely pink (for those girly girly days), to
5) Lovely light blue (for whenever I wear blue. :P), and even to
6) Whacky pink AND blue (for when I feel un-colour coordinated)

And no. 7 just shows the other watch faces that I didn't use, coz' I don't really like them as much. Haha, most likely I will never use number 6, unless it's for something like Discovery Days where I'd be surrounded by kids who are can appreciate the weirdness of unmatching bright colours. Now I feel like going to Mydin and buying another set of these watch with different

Anyway, after those first few days of shopping galore, I have since toned down and am now saving up for my next item of desire... a new phone. More specifically, the latest Sony Ericsson W6610i phone!



Why do I like this phone? Well, first of all, it just looks so hot.... I LOVE anything red, and I LOVE the design.... and it's go a 2.0 megapixel camera which I really want...and, the walkman feature should come in pretty handy too, though I'd still be happy with just a radio tuner as long as it has a decent camera function. :) The only problem is the price tag. Right now it's still above RM1200, which is a tad bit too pricey for my taste. So I shall exercise some patience and wait for some new stuff to come out so that this phone's price will drop... hopefully to about RM800 or so. Hyuk hyuk, working at big@$$ company and I'm still so kiamsup. What to do? :P