thedriveintheatre

Hellooo nurse! I mean, everyone. I’m back (for the mo). Lots of things have happened since my last appearance:

- I got a job with the biggest print organisation in Singapore. If you wanna look it up, it’s called ‘SPH’. I’m employed as a ‘journalist’, but I’m really a sub-editor. So the kinda tasks I do is proofread and tweak the reporter’s stories, do a little paragraph arranging, and basically be the last ‘line of defense’ to keep any mistakes out of the paper. The paper I work for is really a ‘mosquito press’ free tabloid that they give out at train stations and various distribution points, but hopefully I’ll be able to work my way up to the main broadsheet, ‘The Straits Times’. As an interesting note, this is one of only two media companies that publish newspapers (the other is Mediacorp). So really, we don’t have much in terms of media diversitfication or press liberties, and the hours (2 pm to 11 pm) are kinda odd, but I’m not complaining!

- I’ve resigned from my previous graphic designer job and said farewell to all my friends in Sydney. I also had the opportunity to meet up with Phileas aka Gabe in the city before my departure. Yes folks, he’s a truly remarkable person in real-life and every bit as cheerful and good-natured as you imagine him. We went to watch the (headache-inducing) battleship and hung out for coffee afterwards, so it was good to finally see him in-person. I also went for a family trip to Melbourne and with my friends to the Kiama Blowholes. I will miss the friends I made Down Under, but my siblings are still there, so hopefully I can catch up wtih them again in the future.

- I’ve moved back to Singapore, the country where I’ve spent my high-school years and half my life in. It’s kinda weird to be back in the same apartment from five years ago (although it’s a different unit) and basically play house-sitter for my parents (they’re moving back to our homeland, Malaysia), but hey, at least there’s no rent!

- I’ve got an iPad last Christmas, and an iPhone two months before that, both of which I’ve been eagerly downloading apps onto. These devices may not have the best specs (You should really go with Samsung or Acer for better value), but man, are there so many awesome games and apps to try! And nothing beats reading My Little Pony fanfiction on iBook!

- Speaking of which, I’ve been actively participating in the Brony community both in New South Wales and Singapore (the latter during my annual trip back). I’ve also appeared on EQD a couple of times (mostly cos’ I’ve been bugging Seth/pre-readers with my pony cameos in my former company’s magazine) and I hope to write some fanfiction or do some fanvideos over the next few months. Tonight I’ll watch Season 2’s finale, and then it’s many months of agony until the next season.

- My grandmother of 70+ years passed away on Monday in the presence of my parents. This is the wonderful lady who I will always remember giving me those cheek-sucking kisses and bone-crushing hugs as a kid and attempting to speak to us in Hokkien and broken Malay. She will be dearly missed, rest her soul.

So that’s pretty much it, a lot of things have changed, yet much of it has remained the same. I have big plans in the coming months - a relaunch of my Youtube channel (Prepare for a REALLY BIG REVEAL), some new video-editing programs I’ve been playing with, a couple of fanfics and fanart in the pipeline, and hopefully enough time and courage to pursue them. Here’s to a great summer ahead! :)

Equestria Daily: Nightly Roundup #182

Surprise!!! Today I made the headelines for the ‘Nightly Roundup’ on Equestria Daily. I’ll let my email to ED from Monday explain it all:

“Dear Equestria Daily,

I’m a recent university graduate from Down Under and a self-professed Brony. Two months ago, I started my first job as a graphic designer at a Sydney-based coupon magazine company. Its Unique Selling Point is that its issues are thematic parodies of movie and TV show titles. Last week, I assembled my first magazine (the theme is the recent movie ‘Arthur Christmas’, which I successfully pitched), and I was in charge of the cover and centrespread of the clients as well as the spoof synopsis on the content page.

I was creatng the centrespread when I realised that there was some negative space between two of the clients. I had already used a reindeer, so just for the heck of it, I decided to insert a live-action version of one of the Mane SIx. I chose Twilight (although my favourite is Fluttershy) and rewrote the synopsis to reflect her impromptu introduction. I haven’t watched Arthur Christmas yet, but to my knowledge, there’s no magical teleporting unicorn in the film. Coincidentally, one of the main characters was conveniently named Bryony, which just begged the removal of one letter for her spoof name.

To my surprise (and utter delight), Twilight’s cameo in the content page synopsis and centrespread somehow passed the two editorial checks and the issue went to print! So right now, there’s 50,000 copies of this advertising magazine being distributed in the Fairfield district in Sydney with T. Sparkle waiting to surprise any observant Aussie Bronies! I’ve included a few links to pictures I’ve taken of the printed copy; I think I can safely avoid copyright issues as I didn’t actually refer to her by name, and I’ve made my version of the stars on Twilight’s cutie mark have five spokes, while the canon version has six.

Oh, and the magazine is also available for download online, where I also created a brief animation of Twilight at the end of the banner clip which plays on the homepage. The print and online versions will be available till the end of January, in case any Fairfield Bronies ask.

Do send me a link if you post this on ED, so I can share it with my fellow Bronies here and overseas. Thanks for reading this, and bringing such a great community fan site to life every day.

Your faithful reader,
Andre”

ED replied:

“Haha nice! Sneaky Twi. To the roundup.”

So I eagerly came back from work the next day to see if my story made the roundup, but it wasn’t there. Two more days passed before I decided to send them a reminder on Friday.

“Greetings Equestria Daily,

It’s been three roundups, did I miss it somewhere or are you saving this for the weekend? ;)

Yours derpfully,
Andre”

And they responded:

“Looks like it just got.lost! Added again..”

So I checked in a few hours later and there was a heading there, but no images or description.

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/12/nightly-roundup-181.html

ED said that “for some odd reason none of these links work anymore”, but it was still working on my end. Eventually though, after a reupload to my Flickr account, it finally showed up in the Saturday edition as you see above. Unfortunately, they didn’t link to a spoof synopsis I wrote that referenced Twilight in the contents page, but you can read it on the online version of the mag in the ilnk they provided, Or you can check it out below.

(references in 3rd and 6th paragraph)

Cover - http://flic.kr/p/aSLX5n (no Twilight in here, just to show y’all the magazine title)

Contents page - http://flic.kr/p/aSLXz8

Spoof synopsis closeup - http://flic.kr/p/aSLYaa (references in 3rd and 6th paragraph)

Centrespread - http://flic.kr/p/aSLYDK

Page of centrespread - http://flic.kr/p/aSLZbr

Twilight closeup - http://flic.kr/p/aSM3EF

Twilight closeup 2 - http://flic.kr/p/aSLZzk

Online version with web animation - http://www.nmags.com/fn/index.php (watch the animated banner till the end, after the speech bubble fades away)

If you live in Fairfield, Sydney, you can find copies of the magazine right now in shopping malls, local businesses, and maybe even your mailbox! Just follow the web animation link above and there’s an ‘Out of Mags’ button you can click to check out distribution points. And thanks to ED for publishing my story! ;)

Copyright Disney Enterprises LLC

This is a very significant Pixar film for me, because it was the first one that my siblings and I saw in cinemas since Toy Story. It was also during a period for which I had an intense hatred for Pixar because of what I thought they were doing to traditionally-animated movies. I believed back then that Pixar started the whole CGI-craze that was killing the old-school animation industry, and I was quite bitter about it. I used to have motion-sickness when watching the poor CGI back then, and it was in that year (2004) that I read the announcement that ‘Home on the Range’ would be Disney’s final 2D animated film. But my parents wanted to take us because it received a great review in the local newspaper and it was doing well in the box-office, so they took it as an invitation to bring the whole family to the movies.

So I went in with anger and cynicism in my heart, and came out with an entire paradigm shift. I was moved to tears during that scene where Nigel was breathlessly telling Nemo and the tank gang of his father’s brave quest to save him, or when Dory pleaded with Marlin not to leave her because she doesn’t “want to forget”.

Of course, in two years time, a certain John Lasseter movie would change my love-hate relationship with the studio forever. But I must credit Finding Nemo for planting the seeds of doubt in the first place. And of course, here I am, in Sydney of all places, home of Nigel and the tank gang, pursuing my dreams of becoming a great storyteller like Pixar.

Happy birthday to Finding Nemo, and congratulations to Stanton and his talented team! Although the ending was perfect, I certainly wouldn’t mind a sequel, if one was ever made down the road.

I am very fed up with the alcohol-related violence in Sydney (and Australia). Aussies have a very strong drinking culture, and while I have nothing wrong with alcohol consumption (I like a lil’ Singapore Sling and Caipirinha myself), there is always a limit. We should partake in everything in moderation; you can even have too much of a good thing.

Some stupid people think it’s cool to drink a lot (probably egged on by peer pressure or poor self-esteem) and then get wasted, do silly things with complete strangers, get involved in bar brawls, crash their cars, or worst. By all means, getting drunk is one of the few things that you should try at home instead of doing in public.

In Malaysia and Singapore, we have pubs and bars and various drinking establishments. But we don’t need to fund government campaigns encouraging ‘responsible drinking’, or have mobile rbt (random breath testing) that waste taxpayers’ money. We behave ourselves. We know when one more is too much.

We don’t go to a bar to drink beer and scotch after work, we go to eat supper at coffee shops and hawker centers. No one gets hammered on Nasi Lemak, Char Kway Teow or Roti Prata. Beer is only the side attraction, in addition to other non-alcoholic drinks like Teh Tarik (pulled milk tea), Bandung (rose syrup), and the ever-popular Milo iced chocolate beverage. The only drunks you see most of the time are Western expatriates at Clarke Quay and Orchard Road, which sets an embarassing example for their home countries.

I’m not a prude, nor am I a strict teetotaller (although I’m not as crazy or adventurous over drinks as my brother is). Everything needs to be taken in moderation, be it homework, video games, hanging out on forums, or alcohol.

Australia, and to an extent America, Britain and Ireland have a drinking culture. Asian countries have an eating culture. And that’s why Asian countries have less puke stains on the pavement, wrecked vehicles with teens trapped inside, girls being accosted by drunk men at night, and victims of ‘glassing’ incidents than Western countries.