Autumn
The Basics
I go by the name, Autumn. I’m a Malaysian Chinese college student in her hometown, KL. For the past 10 years or so, I’ve been living in Brunei and of now, that is where home is to me. I don’t update very often as I don’t have Internet access on schooldays in my hostel. Also, college does take up a lot of my time.
I speak English almost all the time. I don’t speak Chinese very well though, I was in a Chinese school for 3 years (and more if you include kindergarten). But I can read or sort of guess words. I frankly think my Cantonese is better than my Mandarin, thanks to all the nights all these years watching Cantonese TVB series. My dialect’s neither though; it’s Hokkien and Teochew. You may find it strange but I actually improved my Malay vocabulary by reading the subtitles from the shows too. But no, can’t speak Malay fluently neither.
Her Personality
Procastinator, a pretty serious case. I get myself to do what I’m supposed to do maybe a week or days before the deadline if there’s no urgency. It’s even worse when I don’t like doing it.
Straightforward. I can tell you bluntly into your face if I’m annoyed or mad at you especially if I’m not in mood. Oh, and I get agitated rather quickly.
If I’m in a good mood, I may become hyper & talk non-stop - nonsensically that is.
A little bit rude when my mood isn’t good & yet getting annoyed, scolded, irritated etc.
I’m not a social butterfly.
Favours
Family comes first, followed by friends: they’re the key people in my life. I have at least 30 soft toys, most of them on the bed beside mine, untouched. Only my TY dog’s on my bed along with a soft “blue star” pillow.
I love autumn, the season. Not because like some people say, it’s the transition period before the bilstery winter arrives. I just love the colours and the sight of falling leaves - which, I’ve yet to see for myself.
Preference of colours: the blues and pastels. I like animals but I’m in someway afraid of them in general. I like horses and dogs. No cats for me, and reptiles especially lizards - gosh, they’re my most hated animals ever (ironically, my house in Brunei is filled with them; over here in my hostel, it’s cockroaches and my housemates instead hate them).
I have a passion for designing - more to web-related, netball, music and arts. I however, did not do Art in my secondary school and doubt I’ll be majoring in anything art-related. I’ve pretty much not drawn since my art exam in Primary 6! I like the piano - I stopped taking lessons a couple of years ago because I hated the exams, the repetition of the same songs - and the guitar (can barely play it though).
I like ice-blended mocha, chocolates especially hazelnut ones and a lot of other junk which genereally do no good to my health.
I don’t really watch TV. I used to though, but my hostel has no Astro (Malaysian satellite/cable). Used to watch nightly Cantonese TVB series. I watch my favourite shows, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, Grey’s Anatomy, Heroes on my computer. I also watch some Chinese shows online like the Seventh Day for now. So yes, the computer is important. I like House too but I don’t watch it consistently.
For songs, Yellowcard - Only One has been one of my favourites for a few years now, so is The Calling - Wherever You Will Go.
Dislikes
Colours: Dull ones.
Animals: Lizards, creepy crawlies, cats.
Fruits: Durians.
Attitude: Liars, snobs, show-offs, people who compare, always want to win & win only.
Web-related: sTicKy cAps, disabling of right-click.
What’s playing
- Kate Voegele - Wish You Were; No Good; I Won’t Disagree; It’s Only Life (actually the whole album’s good)
- Colbie Caillat - Realize; Bubbly; Feelings Show; The Little Things (more or less whole of Coco)
- Daughtry - Home; Over You; Feels Like Tonight (same comment as above)
- Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
- OneRepublic - Stop and Stare; Apologize
Quotes
“You need boundaries between you and the world.. It’s all about lines; drawing lines in the sand and praying like hell no one crosses them.
Boundaries don’t keep other people out; they fence you in. Life is messy - that’s how we’re made. So, you can waste your life drawing lines or you can live your life crossing them.. Here’s what I know: if you’re willing to take the chance, the view from the other side is spectacular.” Dr. Meredith Grey (Grey’s Anatomy S1E2)
Wishlist
[ ] A properly tuned piano.
[ ] Go somehwere in autumn where the leaves are of all bright colours.
[ ] No more excema.
[ ] No more lizards at home.
And of course, ultimately go through this year smoothly.
How it all began..
I started going online when 4 years ago. I started off chatting and just… chatting. My brother was using Adobe Photoshop one day & the first thing I learnt from it was to crop images. Then, Christine opened a site and I developed an interest for web-designing. Initially I started off Microsoft FrontPage but I found it rather stiff. I learnt the basics - about tables, font, the tags from Htmlgoodies.com. It was good as a start-off point for one who has no idea about HTML but to progress, I had to search through other tutorials. So, I learnt of the power of CSS & DIV’s and didn’t touch tables again till later. I used Macromedia Dreamweaver for a while but went on to Notepad and I’ve been using it ever since - it’s my coding companion!
I’ve never used a premade layout before; I made my own the whole way through. I’ve been using Adobe Photoshop all this time & once or twice, I’ve embedded Flash animation. Now, I’m venturing into the powers of Adobe Illustrator. I’m dedicated to managing my sites (until my interests dwindle or my personal life is too hectic); I just sit in front of the computer for hours just doing my site and surfing - which is actually not too good, for all reasons.
I started off with Diaryland, Blogger (about a year or so), on to Freewebs & Atspace. (I’ve moved a lot; I can’t even remember the URLs to some.) After all this moving, I finally decided to try out hosting at Velvetkisses.net & I was there for 2-3 months till my eldest brother bought me a domain, and so came Scarlet-Blush.net. It was a one-year plan with so much space that I only used 1% of it along with all my network sites. Initially it was progressing well - many visitors, constant addition of content & regular updating but it soon died out when I lost interest. I suddenly got too busy with personal life. So, S-B.net stayed with every-now-&-then updates & hardly any additions; the domain was going to a waste. And since it was quite costly to renew, S-B.net has since disappeared. Took a break for a while, but it felt a little awkward not having a site to talk at least. I went back to Blogger.com & I’m still there. Still, I missed the freedom of being able to use FTP, PHP, uploading images within the same directory & just the fun of having a personal site that could attract visitors. Thus, after much consideration, I applied hosting & I’m here now at autumn.snow-willow.com, thanks to Rilla.
Previously..
- Scarlet-Blush.net
The predecessor of Noche Illusies - my first domain which lasted for a year. - Fairytale Awards - s-b.net/fairytale
An awards site which I managed with Christine. Closed with domain expiry. - Twilight Blends - s-b.net/twilight
A blend challenge site up for about 6 months - gone with S-B.net. - S-Blush Rotation- s-b.net/rotation
1:1 rotation site - disappeared with S-B.net. - jiayean.velvetkisses.net
Before getting the domain, I was hosted for the first and possibly the last time, or so I had thought. Thanks to Rachelle who hosted me for about 2 months! =) - twinkalicious-awards.atspace.org
My first awards site - lasted much shorter than Fairytale Awards. Also shared with my friend, Jia Jia. - undefinedfate.atspace.org/fadedreality.cjb.net
Third/second (fadedreality was a redirection URL to undefinedfate) which lasted for half a year, from January to June 2005. - autumnbluez.blogspot.com
My very first website. Opened early 2004 and lasted the longest of all my previous websites for at least a year or so.
- As of 22 March 2008.