Fab Five of February

Picture taken by rinnah at the 2007 Flora Fest

I have a confession to make. o.0 *blink blink*

You see, rinnah has been very lazy of late. Oh yes! We are stepping into the month of May and I have only published the THHC™ chup results for January! Oh me oh my! *runs around like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland*

To all my fansee... sorry la... the offline real-world life suddenly seems very busy of late. The work deadlines were pretty close together (a number of submissions to do within days of each other and are still coming thick and fast) and not so new (read: delayed) projects have now come back with a vengeance. LOL. I've even been leaving the office later and later... used to be 5.30pm sharp, then 5.45pm, then 6.00pm, 6.15pm... you get the drift. Nowadays my average time to leave office is no earlier than 7.00pm. Aw man! That is so not the work culture trap I wanna fall back into! Then when I get home it's exercise (if I feel like it), dinner, teevee (my AI fix), bloghopping, shower, sleep. Where got time, you tell me? And with my Indonesia trip series, I have half a mind editing photos while the other half a mind is busy trying to keep up with my favorite blogs... the number of unread items in my RSS reader is close to 1,000+. Bleh. And owh, I've already declared RSS bankruptcy a couple of times but within a matter of days its back to the same old levels. When the weekend rolls around I have activities to check out, friends to meet and catch-up with, places to go and see... help! my world is spinning faster and faster and beyong my control. Guess that's why I named my blog It's all about the spin...? LOL.

Aiyah, I got diverted off the topic. See? Easily distracted of late. *grin*

Actually hor, I ramble on so much above is to divert you from the very small results of the THHC™ chup results for February. Laziness to the max leh. Only 5 posts for you to chup and it takes me forever to compute the results. Ahahaha. Oh yeah, another confession to make. I worked on other (time-sensitive) blogposts first before this one... like the Chiling Falls trip, the Indonesia trip series, baby announcements and Mother's Day dedications. And I still have tons of back-dated drafts in my work folder that need to be edited, polished and pictures added. And I've become a wee bit addicted to editing and putting my own photography work in my blogposts. All of that consumes time! Argh!

Cheh. Kena diverted yet again. (Kononnya!) Sorry ya. Back to the subject at hand. Here are the Fab Five of February!

1st - l b
2nd - angeles
3rd - may

4th - parisb
5th - winn, chev, kyh

The tales of T H E H U G H U G C L U B™ (THHC™) can be found here.

Now, let's KFC (keep fingers crossed) that I won't dilly dally again till the next edition of chup results!

The mystery of the missing January...

... THHC™ points, that is.

Did anyone notice that I haven't posted up any THHC™ results for this year? Yes? No? I dunno?

Bad girl, rinnah. No more procrastinating! *piak*

Okay, so I shan't put this off any longer, but I got tired of tabulating halfway through so I'm only releasing the January results! *naughty grin* (Samore I only wrote eight posts in January. *gasp*)

But, here are your intrepid chuppers!

1st - l b
2nd - angeles
3rd - mistipurple

And rounding off the pack...

4th - misha
5th - chev & zewt
6th - andie summerkiss (new chupper!), may & wennnn
7th - the giddy tigress & narrowband
8th - kyh

Curious cats and blur sotongs can go here to find out more about THHC™.

I'll try to post up February's results before the month of March is over... *crosses fingers behind back*

**********
By the way, has anyone tried these games before?

Mystery Case Files

Dream Day Honeymoon

They're both done on the same premise, that is, you have to find the hidden objects within the picture. You have to find X number of objects within XX number of minutes in order to progress to the next level. It's very addictive! And strenous on the eyes too. Haha. I can spend an hour or so staring intently at the screen trying to figure out where the hidden item is.

Oops. Now you know what I've been doing instead of posting your THHC™ results. Mystery solved! *grin*

Hello 2008!

Woot! We've stepped into 2008 and I hope that you're finding that this year is gonna be kinder and better to you than the last. Without further ado, here are the successful chuppers for the month of December...

1st - No doubt about it, it's LB!
2nd - It's the ever constant Angel!
3rd - Back to uni KYH!

Congrats to them and also to these people...

4th - Mistipurple
5th - May
6th - Chen
7th - Zewt
8th - Adrian & Misha
9th - Eastcoastlife (Woot! New chupper!)
10th - Giddy Tigress
11th - Mudpie, Narrowband, Tine & Simon
12th - Wennnn
13th - Paris Beaverbanks

**********
After much thought and deliberation in 2007 (gawsh, that sounds like ages ago, eh?) I have decided to make major changes to my blogging life. Thank you for all your feedback to my questions in this post here and the following is what I've decided.

~ I will be moving the major part of my blogging to my own domain and not publicizing it beyond this post. If my readers follow me there, they follow me there. If not, I don't mind too, because...
~ My blogging style at my domain will still be me, but with a much more personal spin. So there will be happy / thinking / emo posts and will be much less light-hearted than Blogspot.
~ I am not shutting down Blogspot, but will keep it for funny stuff / tags and memes / sponsored stuff. *grin* The writing style will still remain the same here anyway and will probably consist of shorter posts.
~ THHC still remains open here, but there may be less posts to chup on since I will be cutting down on the frequency of my posts.
~ Also gonna be commenting on fewer blogs - due to time constraints and other things. But I still love all of you!

It's not exactly a blogging sabbatical nor retirement, just a reprioritizing of my life. I've come to realize that I was over ambitious (what was I thinking to have nine blogs? *faints*) and close to running risk of burnout. So, that's that.

Hope to (still!) see you all in the new year.

Santarina is giving out free hugs!

Wow! Time flies. Can you believe it... it's already December and time for me to publish another The Hug Hug Club round-up. I'm sure you're waiting to find out who's been naughty or nice topping the chupping charts, eh? Since we are at year-end and so near to the X'mas season, I shall adopt the role of Santa-rinnah Santarina and hand out free hugs (it is called The Hug Hug Club after all) for the lucky chuppers who made it to the top of the X'mas tree chupping chart... so boys and girls, this is Santarina's list:

Mistletoe smooches and candy cane hugs for LB
Angel tree topper hugs for Angel
Reindeer hugs for Mistipurple

They were very good and quick to beat the rest of the pack who were following behind...

4th - Ehon
5th - KYH
6th - Giddy Tigress & Mudpie
7th - May
8th - Wennnn
9th - Adrian & Chen
10th - Misha & Paris Beaverbanks
11th - Doreen, Pelf, Simple American & Zewt

Consolation milk 'n cookies hugs for all! No lumps of coal since you were very productive. :o) The coals are reserved for and given to light a fire under those who didn't get to chup last month. Here's hoping you manage to do so this month!

For more about The Hug Hug Club and it's many resorts, visit here.

Wishing all a Blessed Merry Christmas in advance!

The Amazing THHC points round-up for October

Well, it looks like I posted less in October than I did in September and I foresee that I'll be posting even lesser for the months of November and December! But, of course, you know me... this ain't no guarantee of whether I do post or not. I do a number of posts normally each day, but it's spread out amongst my blogs so unless you're following me there then it'll seem like I'm not posting very much at all. *grin* But this isn't what you've come to see, now is it? On with the show!

Because Season 2 of The Amazing Race Asia (TARA) premieres tonight on Astro's AXN, let's show off the amazing racers for the month of October at this resort of THHC...

1st - L B
2nd - May
3rd - Angel

Other racers who got eliminated from the competition left behind in their wake were...

4th - Giddy Tiger
5th - Ehon
6th - Wennnn
7th - KYH
8th - Doreen
9th - Chen
10th - Mistipurple
11th - Lydia, Narrowband and Winn
12th - Zewt, Simple American and Adrian

And last but not least, a hearty welcome to new racers Doreen and Adrian! *waves*

Competition begins again with this post and racers may find their copy of the rules and regulations here. If you'd like to have your blog be a pitstop on the worldwide hunt for chups, contact RaceMaster LB, k?

Tara, tara! (Bad pun. Heh.)

Nine up, over and out!

I can't believe it. Time has flown away like no one's business, and we're already starting the month of October! Where did the year go to? Before I can turn around, Christmas will be here soon. It's too soon!

Anyway, the time has come for me to publish the chupping results for the month of September. I had a record 64 posts, with both sponsored and non-sponsored content. *pengsan* I really didn't realize that I wrote that much! (By the way, looking at the overwhelming number of sponsored posts, I will stop awarding hug hug points for sponsored posts... not very fair to keep on awarding it out. *sheepish grin*)

Here are the hard-working and prolific top three chuppers:

An Angel who flitted in and out with a whopping 111 hug hug points!!!

Hard on the angel's wings was a very Giddy Tiger who somehow found time in between tagging me to rack up 96 hug hug points!!

Despite the summer holiday hiatuses... this terrible twosome still managed an amazing and very fatt 88 hug hug points each!

Whew! I am amazed that they managed to rack up that many points between them all. Rounding off the rest of the list...

4th - Wennnn with 52 hug hug points!
5th - Zewt with 22 hug hug points!
6th - Mistipurple with 20 hug hug points!
7th - Chen with 13 hug hug points!
8th - Mudpie with 12 hug hug points!
9th - A pretty duo of Misha and Paris Beaverbanks with 11 hug hug points each!
10th - Narrowband with 10 hug hug points!
11th - Ehon with 9 hug hug points!
12th - A three-way tie between Pelf, Leonard and A^Ben with 4 hug hug points each!
13th - A crowd consisting of Adrian, Ah Boy, Sengkor, Tom Wigley and Nick Phillips with 1 hug hug point each!

Let's see you chup this coming month! Ready, get set, go!

Anonymous no more...

Ha! The very sweet Angeliu invited me for makan and sampat-ing session on Sunday night. But hor, she never prepared me to meet so many others leh. I suspected (rightly!) that our Doctor of Sampat-ness, Chenliu would be there since I knew that she was coming down to KL.

As for the others, I finally get to see the faces behind the blogs... *waves hello at King's Wife, Ally, Sam, LaundryAmah, Nyonya Penang and Narrowband*

Actually hor, I have peeped at their blogs before so I know who they are - or rather, their online persona. LOL!

Angel - very sweet! Now I know why other bloggers said she is a bit "shy". Hehehe.
Chen - so young leh! Ehon... 26 is a good age for her. Kekekekekeke!
King's Wife - is more petite than I imagined her to be...
LaundryAmah - so farnee that I couldn't stop laughing (over nipplegate)!
Nyonya Penang - hehe... now I know why she can talk and talk and talk... LOL!
Narrowband - one word = tall.

I will only post up one picture of the food as I wanna do that review over at my foodie blog. Heh.

But no pictures of bloggers! Those are for my private collection. Muahahahaha!

I need your vote!

Dear readers of It's all about the spin... I need your help.

As you know and may have noticed, I've been posting a number of sponsored posts with increasing frequency in my efforts to get more moolah. But I don't want to alienate you, dear reader, so I'm thinking of doing something along these lines...

Since I have my own dot com address now, I am now looking for a web hosting provider and will open house at rinnah.com soon. Soon when? As in when I can find the time to do so. LOL. But definitely by the end of the year, I will have sorted this out. New year opening? I'm quite inclined to that. And I will endeavour to keep the paid posts there to a minimum. All paid posts will go onto rinnah.blogspot.com, except of course, for those paid posts that exclude blogger.com websites. Heh. My escape clause.

But until that happens, I wanna ask you, dear reader, do you think:

a) I should close off the comments option on the paid posts (I don't read the sponsored posts anyway, so no need to comment)
b) Leave the comments open, but not award any THHC points for chups there (yeah, you shouldn't give out points for sponsored posts)
c) Leave things as they are right now (I like 'em just the way it is!)
d) Anything else you might wanna suggest (short of asking me to donate moolah to you. LOL!)

I look forward to your comments and votes!

The Day After Freedom Day

*Twentieth Century Fox music plays in background*

*Screen darkens and opening credits roll*


A production of T H H C ™

Produced by - L B slash C K

Directed by - rinnah



The Day After Freedom Day - August edition



Starring... ... ...

Angel with 74 hug hug points

mudpie with 37 hug hug points

wennnn with 34 hug hug points



Also starring... ...

Giddy Tiger with 26 hug hug points
L B with 18 hug hug points
Simple American with 17 hug hug points
Ehon with 16 hug hug points
Chen with 14 hug hug points
Misha with 13 hug hug points
Zewt with 11 hug hug points


Guest stars...

pelf with 9 hug hug points
may with 8 hug hug points
Paris Beaverbanks with 4 hug hug points
sengkor and Leonard with 3 hug hug points each


**********
Coming soon to a blog near you - December's all star edition! (in all good T H H C ™ blogs - December 2 0 0 7)

For more about T H H C ™ and what it's all about, please click here to understand the casting rules and audition for the next production.

Autumn leaves are falling, falling

Even though Malaysia has no four seasons, somehow I always equate the month of August with autumn! It must be because both words start with A and U... and that reminds me of Little Miss May in Australia. *grin*

It's time to shed some leaves reveal the blog-hoppers who have been raking in points for July at this branch of The Hug Hug Club! *drumroll*

In first place, a very young and pretty maple tree, it's Misha with 32 hug hug points!!!

In second place duet, a silver and a poplar tree, Angel and Leonard with 28 hug hug points each!!

And in another tie, a walnut and a flame tree, Paris Beaverbanks and Chen with 23 hug hug points each!

Other trees of the forest were...

4th - L B with 20 hug hug points
5th - May with 19 hug hug points
6th - Zewt with 14 hug hug points
7th - Giddy Tiger with 11 hug hug points
8th - Ehon with 8 hug hug points
9th - Pink Elle, sengkor, Narrowband with 6 hug hug points
10th - mistipurple, mudpie, Wennnn with 5 hug hug points
11th - kyh, Winn, Ah Boy with 3 hug hug points
12th - a^ben with 2 hug hug points
13th - Simple American with 1 hug hug point

Congratulations to all the hardworking chuppers! To those who didn't get their name up there, try again this month, okay?

I like this logo!

Pretty nifty, huh? *grin*

L B did this .jpg for THHC™ scores of June posted on his website, but I liked it so much I asked him if he would kindly give me license to use the product of his creative genius as my blogsite logo. He said yes, so ta-dah! this is gonna be my new signature photo. Cool!

Your mid-year report card is here!

I was inspired to style this month's THHC scores in the form of a school report card by Misha mei mei, who posted her report card here for us all to see. So, here are our excellent students' scores in the fine art of chupping and earning their gold star hugs for the month of June...

Heading the top of the class is none other than kyh, the student who never sleeps, with a whopping total of 57 hug hug points!!! How he does it with minimal sleep, no one knows. Even dial-up couldn't slow him down, but maybe the beginning of his first semester at USM will?

In second place is our Aussie exchange student, little miss may, with a decent showing of 30 hug hug points!! Although she claims to have slowed down her routine of chupping, it seems like the stars shine on her and she gets the hug hug points everywhere she goes.

Rounding off the top three we have the master of chups and hugs (but still claiming to be forever young young) and a continuous student of the fine arts, l b with 20 hug hug points! No chup is too impossible for him, no hug left unclaimed. Truly a sensei! *bows*

Other international students who are slowly but surely practising their YAATTAAAs and kungfu chups this month are:-

4th - paris beaverbanks with 17 hug hug points
5th - A tie between leonard and misha with 15 hug hug points each
6th - Another tie here with two pretty ladies, angel and cutiepie with 12 hug hug points each
7th - zewt with 11 hug hug points
8th - And another tie between two lovely ladies, wennnn and giddy tiger with 10 hug hug points each
9th - sengkor with 5 hug hug points
10th - chen with 4 hug hug points
11th - winn with 3 hug hug points
12th - simple american with 2 hug hug points
13th - And to wrap it up with a three way tug-o-war between darlene, a^ben and narrowband with 1 hug hug point each

If you're feeling like joining our international students in understanding the fine art form of the chup and the success of the hug, please find your schooling prospectus and syllabus here.

**********
So fast the time flies and we're already heading into the second half of the year! *pweeeeeet* It's half-time break for l b as he comes back to Malaysia for his vacation and for mishmish as she enjoys her summer holidays... kyh has gone to start his first semester of university life and narrowband joins the merry world of slaves. For the rest of us, the game of life continues. YAATTAAA!!!

p.s. I have lots to blog... but not enough time to write. Boohoo!

A chupping we will go...

Heigh ho, heigh ho, a chupping we will go!

So who chupped what for the month of May? Let's see... there were 25 posts for you to chup, and 25 x 3 opportunities for you to get onto the scoring board.

1st place gold medal - kyh with a runaway score of 74 huggie points!!! (How'd you do that anyway?)
2nd place silver medal - l b with an even score of 44 huggie points!! (The founder of T H H C franchises has to be in the points!)
3rd place bronze medal - may with a cool score of 30 huggie points! (Even though she's in Oz-land, boy can she still can chup!)

You, you and you were also in the chuppers list for May...

4th - angel with 17 huggie points
5th - chen with 10 huggie points
A joint 6th place - ehon and narrowband with 9 huggie points each
And another joint 7th place - winn and a^ben with 7 huggie points each
8th - king's wife with 5 huggie points
9th - cutiepie with 4 huggie points
10th - mistipurple with 3 huggie points
And another joint 11th place - misha and paris beaverbanks with 1 huggie point each

It was a productive month of May and a month of birthdays! Happy Birthday to you, you and you again! Chups will be back soon for June... stay tuned!

Be Right Back

There will be a short commercial break on As The World Spins. The blog writer is taking a hiatus to sort out some things in her life and hopes to come back with a better focus and greater blog posts. Hurhurhur. Call it quality control (or perfectionist tendencies) kicking in. It will be strange (to say the least) not posting anything, but you know... absence makes the heart grow fonder!

p.s. The last post for a bit will be the tally of May chups to find out the most hard-working chupper for this blog. Happy chupping!

p.p.s. But then again, being the contradictory person that I am, I just might sneak in a post or two now and then. Oh me oh my!

Your April Labours

This post was supposed to have been out yesterday but it was a public holiday - Labour Day (a mis-named holiday IMHO, because no labour is done on this day!) and so I was not "labouring" away at my laptop. Hahaha.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand... If you've been a regular visitor to my little corner of the web, you would have noticed those pretty T H H C™ logos on my sidebar... neh *point point to the right*

And you might have seen the strange language used in the comments of chups and hugs. *grin* Never fear, all is revealed when it's time to announce the Gold, the Silver and the Bronze medals for the Chuppers of this T H H C™ resort. And here are the hard-working Chuppers for the month of April...

1st place Gold medal - kyh with 23 huggie points!!!

First ever joint 2nd place Silver medal - angel & may with 19 huggie points each!

3rd place Bronze medal - l b with 12 huggie points!

*hands out medals with fanfare and confetti*

Other lucky Chuppers in April:

4th - simple american with 8 huggie points

A three-way tie for 5th - a^ben, mistipurple and chen with 3 huggie points

6th - wennnn with 1 huggie point

Hope you had a good Labour Day holiday and are ready to get back in the groove now! So, chup away for the month of May!

And the winner is... ? ? ?

OK, so we have come to the end of the month of March... time to tally up the scores and see who has walked away with the Gold, the Silver and the Bronze medals for Chuppers from this T H H C™ resort. Without further ado... *drumroll*

1st place Gold medal - kyh with 22 huggie points!!!
2nd place Silver medal - l b with 13 huggie points!!
3rd place Bronze medal - may with 10 huggie points!

Other lucky chuppers this month include:

4th - angel with 9 huggie points
5th - chen with 8 huggie points
6th - ah boy with 6 huggie points
7th - simple american with 1 huggie point

Oooh yes, and I made it into L B's Premier Hug Hug Club! Hahaha... on my first try too!

Happy April Fool's Day to all! Don't get fooled now, ya? *leaves hugs for all*

Red carpet gala premiere of T H H C™ franchise resort

*turns on television*

A well-coiffed female news reporter appears, standing on the red carpet, freezing in her skimpy designer gown.

"And we're all here, standing on the red carpet outside the Blogsphere Theatre to witness the premiere of the latest franchise of T H E H U G H U G C L U B™. This wildly successful idea popularized the concept of CHUPPING and the awarding of highly coveted HUG points for which bloggers all over the world race each other to be the top three CHUPPERS for the fame, the glory, and yes, the prizes. A number of celebrities are scheduled to be here today..."

A sleek stretch limo pulls up, distracting the reporter.

"And he's here! The blogger formerly known as Chairman and the perpetuator of T H H C™ franchised resorts Internet-wide, the one responsible for all the groovy T H H C™ logos which are a must have for any cool blogger, he's the Emperor of the Imperial Den and star of his own blog-serial The 48 Concubines... it's L B!"

A silk robe clad L B strikes a pose for the crowd, flashing his bling bling L and B on twin gold chains.

A flash of camera bulbs popping alerts the reporter to the new arrivals. It's a gorgeous couple.

"OMG! It's Brad! And Angie! Love her Angel-themed outfit. Don't they look good together? No sign of Maddox, Zahara, Shiloh and Pax Thein anywhere though..." A sultry, lip-pouting Angie sashays by with her Brad.

The sound of a faintly Oz-tinged accent, the aroma of freshly baked gingerbread cookies and a whirlwind of hugs for all herald the arrival of May in her blue blue tei silk robe with a glimpse of leg, feet shod in pretty sandals and a brand spanking new black leather bag.

"Hmm, looks like silk robes are the must have of this season's high fashion... that and bustiers too, as excellently modeled by our next red-carpet arrival."

A bustier clad beauty known as Concubine C model walks by, followed soon after by Jo, the family advocate and the iDoc, also known as the Imperial Doctor with Ah Boy, purveyor of siew pai kuat and lor mai kai.

A rumble on the pavement and screeching of wheels announce the latest arrival on the red carpet as a monster truck with machine guns mounted on its hood pulls into the arena. A Texan cowboy hops down. "Howdy y'all," the Simple American drawls as he swaggers inside.

"It looks like all the celebrities are here. Let's go inside for the opening ceremony." The reporter and cameraman hurry inside.

All the celebrities are lined up to cut the red ribbon, golden scissors poised above the ribbon. L B brandishes his pair of golden scissors around.

"I now declare this resort of T H H C™ officially open!"

Confetti sprays from the ceiling, champagne corks pop, camera flashbulbs go off, awards-style music trumpets in the background, bloggers everywhere cheer...

*television suddenly goes static*

Huh? Wha...? Oh! It was just a dream! Silly me... *blush*
But this T H H C™ resort is open and it's not a dream, so CHUP away! *grin*