chili oil
birthday list + film posters remake
Hi friends!
Today’s post is a little long, but I’m excited to share with you guys a Birthday List (and would highly recommend other creatives to make one too!) and some projects I’m working on.
Visuals for the week
I finally have a little bit of time on Sunday to draft out some concepts for a mini showcase happening at the end of the month. I’ll share more details when it’s ready, but for now I’m working on recreating film posters (a combination of some personal favourites and other well-loved titles).
The films I picked out for myself are Spider Lilies, Tokyo Godfathers, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Little Miss Sunshine, and Chungking Express. I wanted a mix of films from international directors that encompass the themes and aesthetics I appreciate. I definitely want to include a couple more well-loved titles that are familiar to a broader audience, but I haven’t really nailed down on those yet.
Workshop for students
Last week, I did a newsletter writing workshop for a group of secondary students. It’s the first time I did a workshop like that, and time flies when there is a lot to cover. Although we have to work really quickly, this group of students are some of the most imaginative I’ve come across. We worked on analysing a body of information and picking out things to highlight in our newsletter, and everybody had fun on Canva selecting images and layouts.
As workshops often come by chance for me, I find myself often doing them, freestyle, with a loose framework in place. I got some requests later on about doing this newsletter workshop for adults and for students at other schools, which are great opportunities. But if I were to do a couple more, I definitely need think about how I can do better, be it through assessing the objectives again, or also adjusting the tone of voice and presentation styles for various age groups. In my experience, workshops with students are often easier to do, because they are usually able to come up with ideas as they already do so in their classes. Time management is usually the only challenge. With adults, I’ll spend more time explaining and also creating prompts to help them along.
And here’s my birthday list!
The format of this list is inspired by one of my favourite Substack writers, Mitchell, who turned 31 last year. I really enjoyed reading his list, and despite living on the other side of the world, I find so many parallels in our favourite things—even our feelings about Blink-182!
Since this newsletter focuses on creative life, I’ve written a list of pivotal influences, perennial favourites, and a few life lessons I learned along the way.
Pivotal moments in my creative life:
Zouk flyers. Peering through my sisters’ Zouk flyers in the 2000s was the moment I learned about graphic design and that it’s possible to have a career doing that. During COVID, I even made a reel about my favourite designs.
Blogskins. Making Blogskins was the highlight of my teenage years and pushed me toward studying art and design.
Art journals. And the Flickr Moleskine community. I probably wouldn’t splurge on a Moleskine now, but those collage-filled journals sparked my lifelong love of cut-and-paste collages.
my cut-and-paste days began from this Moleskine. 
making a Napoleon Dynamite blogskin is peak 2000s.
People who inspire me:
Austin Kleon and his newsletters.
Casey Neistat’s vlogs (circa 2015-2016).
My cousins, Dee and Aik Beng, who create from the heart.
My relationship with objects and curiosities.
8. The Smudge by Clay Hickson, which inspired me to make my newsletters.
My favourite activities.
Walks at the park
Cooking
Building Lego
Watching cats, chickens and birds
The smell of sea
Sun time
Music that I come back to again and again.
Pixies
Daft Punk
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Lessons from life:
Finding my own path to success, despite insecurity and self-doubt.
Resilience and resourcefulness, which looks like:
Making the best of each season of life—nothing lasts forever, and that’s often a good thing.
Relying on my people for support and joy.
Being curious about others. Investing in relationships requires mutual curiosity.
Time becomes more precious as you age—be selective about whom you give it to.
Travelling is great, but even better when you find a wonderful travelling buddy (be it a partner or friend).
Saving money is crucial.
Comparison is futile—others likely compare themselves to you, too.
Things I want to be better at:
29. Managing rejection and not letting past insecurities shape my present.
30. Prioritising self-care—no more ten-hour desk days. (Still a WIP though!)
31. Letting go of guilt around rest and redefining success on my own terms.
Two ideas I want to do next:
Another neighbourhood/place guide.
An archive website for my works.
Hope you enjoy the list!
And the chili oil in question
I recently ran out of my Lao Gan Ma chili crisp, so it gave me a chance to make from scratch. It is surprisingly easy, and not to mention, super delicious. I do love garlic, so I added a lot more garlic in my chili oil. This was really nice to eat with noodles or as a topping over my daily bowl of steamed cabbage and chicken breast.
That’s all for this week. Thank you for staying to the end, and see you in the next post!