My experince at the Kiulap Stall Part 1

A couple of months ago I was pretty excited when I tried my hand at selling face to face minus the virtual world. So basically a temporary stall+goods+me trying out for the first time and wondering how would I cope in the real world.
I signed up for the opportunity and as it was for charity and that made it much more of a sweet deal. Seriously it was not easy and preparation took me roughly two weeks.
How you might ask did I prepare?

• I make tons of handmade jewelry -well not a tonne worth but an ok amount-
• Prepared flyers
• Announced it in my blog
• Ask for help from my family
• Did practice on making an attractive layout for my stall
• I read up online on how to prepare for the stall

You might think I would have gained success. Overall I made a financial loss and in turn gain a priceless experience. The first experience was memorable.

Kick-Ass

Before I go any further here is summary of Kick-Ass the Movie which I did not write which came from IMDB (The Internet Movie DataBase Website) :

Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan with a few friends and who lives alone with his father. His life is not very difficult and his personal trials not that overwhelming. However, one day he makes the simple decision to become a super-hero even though he has no powers or training. Written by Daniel J. Leary - This summary link here.

Kick-Ass seriously it Kicked ass. It was one of those movies that will linger on in my mind. The graphic, story-line, the cast and the movie direction blew me away. The good guys had their dark side and the bad guys were funny. When I think about it their is a fine line between good and evil. Even though I missed the first five minutes. It was dark, funny and overall AWESOME!! I cannot wait for the sequel!!!!!!!!! I apologize if I sound like I am high on sugar.

I waited a whole year to watch this movie and was kinda scratching my head as I wondered why people in Brunei (Or at least my friends)were not excited to watch it.

The movie had its light moments, it normal moments but it was violent, a lot of colorful swearing which I have blocked out of my mind and it pushed one's perception.
These are normal people trying to be Super Heroes.

Kick Ass is the story of normal people living in the real world with no super powers and a normal teenager who decides to become a "superhero". It is the anti comic book hero movie.It starts with a normal teenager -Dave- who ponders why we enjoy reading comic books and love those marvel characters but then ask "Why are there no Super heroes in the real world?"
He then decides to be superhero -his costume is a wetsuit-. He attempts to prevent some criminals from stealing a car and in the process gets beaten up, stabbed and left to bleed to death.
He tries to walk but then gets hit by a car. The driver just drives away and Dave is left unconscious on the road just seen as a kid wearing a wetsuit when he tries to do the right thing.

After recovering, he tries to be a superhero once again and that is when things start to spiral out of control when he gets filmed saving a complete stranger while everybody just watches and the event is uploaded into You Tube.

He tries to be a good guy and ends up getting involve way deeper that he wanted in a world where being a superhero is a big responsibility where you have to make a stand.

I made a mental of check list of friends who could watch it with me and I seriously came up with no one. The one person I thought off who could watch with me was in Japan.

Red Mist is funny as he and Dave are normal teenagers who have a fondness for reading comic books. The difference is Red Mist has an arsenal of gadgets at his disposal as well as tons of cash. There were moments I tried to close my eyes while I watched this movie. I wish I could get a hold of the comic book but from my understanding the movie follows the comic closely. So I really did not miss out on much -I assume the comic book had way more blood and violence involved-

In the end I brought some of my siblings as I gushed about the movie to them and in the end we all enjoyed it. Hit-Girl was one of the best and controversial characters there as she is a 12 year old assassin who enjoys the kill. The movie was well made and I had a couple of laughs and tears in the mix.

The Big Daddy character was a surprise to me as he looked like one of those normal quiet men on the surface but then when you look closer he is a very angry man with murder and revenge on his mind.

There were some memorable lines in the movie and I liked once conversation in particular between Hit-Girl and Kick -Ass while they were in a car. Kinda sad but true.

I am patiently waiting for the next installment. My brother on the other hand is excited as a PS 3 game base on this movie is coming soon.

Araminta - Minty's Garden

Why did I name the Dw33b Collection "Araminta- Minty's Garden"?

Araminata is Greek for the word "Defender" and it is the name of my cat.You might wonder why I named it after a cat. Well, this collection is like her : bright, colorful, sweet, fun and elegant without going too overboard.
I like the seemingly simple design which is complex plus she like any cat enjoy playing with the occasional bug (Making the humans flee in a state of panic), get distracted by the sound of bells and circle shapes items that appear foreign
(I included these components in the jewelry).
The collection is so much like her. I make this collection in memory of her as she recently passed away. I really miss her and wanted to honor her in my own way.
This is for you Minty...I shall always remember you.

Who is Araminta a.k.a Minty?

This collection was inspired by one of my cats that has recently passed on. The original name was suppose to be a Bug-full Garden but the way events transpired.... I changed the name of the collection and created other items.
Her name was Araminta a.k.a Minty and I truly did adore her.

I usually called her Minty as Araminta is quite a mouthful.

She usually responded to both with a "Yes, May I help you?" look

Araminta's name was a result of flipping through book and it caught my eye hence the name. Her name Araminta is Greek for defender (yes I am repeating myself). She was a bi-color mackerel tabby and was a result of an 'accidental' pregnancy'.

Her father is a cat who I found in my house compound when he was a tiny kitten. He had terrible scabs on his ears or lack for a better word kurap on his ears which eventually went away after applying medicine. He is also a bi-color mackerel tabby and is a domestic short hair (DSH) who I named Aldous (I was re-reading a 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley during that time I found him, so the name stuck) .

Minty's mother is the descendant of the Chinchilla breed as well as a domestic long hair (DLH) owned by older sister.

This is Aldous

(Not really a flattering photo as he was busy sniffing catnip at the time I took the photo)

By the time my sister's $500 cat was pregnant and finally gave birth to 5 extremely cute kittens...it was pretty obvious my cat was the father. I was seriously in trouble during that period as 4 out of the 5 kitty litter were Aldous certified kittens. How could she tell? Well, the 4 of them were DSH and bi-color. It took awhile for my sister to get over that fact, then I got Minty as a gift. She was pretty well behaved as a kitten and spoiled rotten by her mother. She was friendly and got along with the majority of the cats around her.
She was a pretty cute kitten and had no problem with me taking photos of her.

Minty's condition

Then one day she got sick with a high fever and when I brought her to a private cat clinic... they told me it was ear mites. They applied that problem to another cat who I brought along who was quite sick as well. I will be honest I was skeptical. I have seen enough cats getting sick and knew it could be worse then that. I accepted it anyway since I was not a professional. It still bugged me in the back of my mind I kept on asking :
How could ear mites be the cause of her sickness?

Two days after her getting worse and the death of a dear kitten which I brought to that cat clinic..I decided to phone this private clinic and ask them what could be the problem.

The person who answered the phone kept on asking so many times about whether Minty was vaccinated (she was already vaccinated twice!) and after many minutes it felt like I was the one patiently explaining instead about the issue at hand. I felt like they were trying to place on the blame on me but then again I was not in a good state of mind.
In the end, I never got a proper answer from this person... in a way i felt being treated like an idiot.
Then I brought her again to that clinic and they told me something which made me shed tears.... the doctor had absolutely NO IDEA what was causing the sickness and he could do nothing for her. He told me she might have blood in her lungs. All he told me was to bring her again the next day and hopefully her high temperature would go down.In his words "They could only treat what they can see"

I felt so powerless on that Thursday last week looking at Minty in the cat carrier and she looked back at me with pain in her eyes. On that same day of that diagnosis which brought me to tears, My older sister then suggested I go to another cat clinic and
I rushed there with the help of one of my other sister who lost that dear kitten-as a result of the unknown illness-.
I called this clinic before they closed. When I reached there a few minutes away from closing time, the doctor there told me what the problem was.... Minty's kidneys were infected hence inflammed. He explained to me that she was in a serious condition and her odds were not looking good. I still took that gamble anyway to help her by buying medicine. He told me to come back three days later and when I did her temperature actually went down. The doctor was now worried about her drop in temperature and suggested I put hot water containers on her sides to keep her warm. The doctor told me her odds were still not looking good . Sadly she did not survive the day and Minty passed away on 8 May around 6:30pm. She was just six months old... It has not been so long ago and I still am sad thinking of her. However, I knew I tried my best to not wallow in my grief and call me dramatic if you want but her pills are still in my room and I do not have the heart to throw them away.

How to check on your cat's health?

If you own a cat and it is behaving differently from its normal behavior such as not eating, sleeping way more than normal and hiding from you.

It is an indication that they might not be feeling well.

The next thing you can to is bring your cat to the cat clinic as soon as possible to get a checkup for the kitty in question.

I brought my cat to the Pet Link Clinic that is located in Kiulap, Brunei where the doctor diagnose Minty's inflammed kidney. I thank the Doctor there --Dr. Wallace-- for being helpful and being honest regarding Minty's health. *One of sister's friend cat had similar symptoms to Minty's condition and he diagnose correctly in time to save that cat's life*

From now on I am going there if any of my cats are feeling unwell.

With that I end this post learning to live more in the moment, treasuring what little time we have and the word written by
Lori Deschene of Tiny Buddha resonating in my head

"Pain is inevitable and suffering is optional."

Alice and The Tin Man

Awhile back I watched Alice in Wonderland in the cinema. It was directed by Tim Burton and I for one grew up being expose to movies directed by this man. He somehow has an interesting way with the way he directs films- quirky and dark at the same time- like BeetleJuice and Edward Scissorhands. As for Alice in Wonderland - It was a good movie about finding out what you really want in life and taking the plunge- . An interesting take but somehow I felt there was something lacking and at this moment I cannot pinpoint what it is. Maybe I wished for more witty dialogue, maybe a longer running time so that Alice may explore "Wonderland" more and more background into the characters such as the the two queens. The graphics were an intricate part of the movie though.

After the movie I was tempted to go read the book as I assume that it would be quite different. My sister mentioned that it was dull but who knows I might read it anyway. The Alice shown in the movie differ quite differently from Alice in the disney movie.



One of the characters that I felt sorry for was The Red Queen. There is something about her that made me think she was a very insecure and lonely child in the body of a woman(as to speak). The way she tried to get love and respect was pretty sad. Too much power and she did not really have anything.

This made me think back about the other remakes or modern adaptation of other classics. One of them that I can think off at the top of my head is The Wizard of Oz. The modern loose adaptation was a mini series that went by the name Tin Man where a girl called DG gets caught up and ends up in a place called Oz (Outer Zone).

It was a sci-fi miniseries that the scarecrow was called Glitch who had half of his brain removed by Azkadellia (The evil witch who is after DG for some reason), and Wyatt Cain (The Tin man!!) a former law enforcer, or "Tin Man", who had been locked in an iron suit for years as punishment for opposing Azkadellia. The Tin Man background story was upsetting as he got locked in a tin suit and watched his family suffer for his plight against injustice.
In the beginning , It dragged on but I enjoyed watching Tin Man, sadly I never got to watch it until the end. Maybe one day I will come across Tin Man again and no I will not wiki to find out the ending
: P